How long does a great heat last? Temperatures will drop Sunday through Saturday with thunderstorms expected

On Tuesday 19 cities are monitored in red and three in orange by the Ministry of Health, on Wednesday 22 Venice, Viterbo and Bari will move to red, the African anticyclone will not be brought to the peninsula, give it a few more days. At least until Saturday afternoon-evening on the 17th, when a cold air flow from northern Europe begins to affect northern areas, there will be a few thunderstorms first over the mountains with a possible invasion of the plains. Sunday is more certain with showers across the Mid-North. Even in the south, temperatures, while still high, will, however, fall within averages for the period.

If the predictions are confirmed – Those beyond 72 hours add to the uncertainty – this will be the first sign of the “summer heat”, which often occurs in the days following the August holidays. However, it will remain breathless for the next few days, with heat preventing the minimum temperature from dropping below 20 degrees, causing the so-called “tropical nights”. With exceptionally warm seas these days, the high humidity makes for a bittersweet feeling. Yesterday it reached the Ligurian, Tyrrhenian, Sicilian Straits and the northern Adriatic seas, and sometimes exceeded 30 degrees Celsius at the surface.

This year’s temperature did not reach the record levels reached in previous years, but the duration of the heat wave broke all records. For several months in the south, but also in some central areas such as Lazio and Tuscany, maximums of 35 degrees have been consistently recorded, while Sicily and Puglia have had very little rainfall.

The boiling air also reached Mont Blanc: At the Arpa Valle d’Aosta, Colle Major (4,750 meters above sea level) automatic weather station, the temperature stayed above zero for 33 consecutive hours from midnight Saturday to 9 a.m. last Sunday, breaking the previous record. 5 hours registration. Marmolada Peak (3,343 meters) recorded a maximum of 11.4 degrees Celsius yesterday. The 3 thousand meter Passo Marinelli in Lombardy reached 14.6 °C in Valtellina, while the minimum did not drop below 10.7 °C. It was 9 degrees Saturday afternoon at Capanna Margherita on Monte Rosa (4,554 meters). Although the frost, with 5,000 meters remaining, has not touched the record of 5,328 meters set on August 20-21 last year, Alpine glaciers are in agony.

The African anticyclone has not spread its burning blanket Only in Italy, but it also reached the Arctic. Data from the islands of Svalbard, at about 80° north latitude, is interesting: the capital Longyearbyen had a high of 20.3 degrees Celsius and a low of 15 on Sunday, a rare occurrence in August.

Heat waves are becoming increasingly frequent and intense. According to a study published yesterday by the Barcelona Institute for Global Health Natural medicineLast year – the hottest time ever globally, but which will be surpassed by 2024 -, saw 47,690 heat deaths in Europe. The country with the highest number of victims is Italy (12,743), followed by Spain and Germany. Paolo Virtuani