Climate: Rome is the hottest capital city – temperatures have risen by three degrees since the 1980s
During the same period, temperatures in Paris, Madrid and Berlin rose by around two degrees. In all four cities, this represents the largest increase in the last 15 years
Since the early 1980s, the average temperature in Rome has risen by around three degrees. In other major European capitals, the increases are more modest: in Madrid, Paris and Berlin, they are around two degrees. In all four cities, however, the increase recorded has been greatest over the last 15 years. This has been revealed by Istat.
Climate change
The data confirms the trend whereby urban areas tend to experience more pronounced warming than the rest of the country, a phenomenon partly attributable to heat islands – a phenomenon whereby cities record higher temperatures than the surrounding rural or coastal areas.
However, the rise in temperatures is not limited to Rome. According to Istat, in fact, between 2006 and 2023, compared with the 1981–2010 climate average, among the 21 Italian regional capitals, the number of summer days (those with a maximum temperature above 25 degrees) have risen from 101 to 114, and tropical nights (those with a minimum temperature that does not fall below 20 degrees) have increased from 38 to 49.
The Mediterranean
Compared with the global average, the impact of global warming is more evident in Italia and Europe. Whilst, globally, surface temperatures in 2024 were 0.7 degrees higher than in the period 1991–2020, the increase recorded in Italia was 1.3 degrees and in Europe as much as 1.5 degrees.
Not even the seas are immune to the rise in temperatures. The Mediterranean remains an area of particular climate vulnerability: in the Tyrrhenian and Adriatic Seas, between 1940 and 2025, the average annual temperature has risen at twice the global average rate, recording an increase of over one degree.
