Europe is hot and “it’s just the beginning,” warns the European Space Agency (ESA, its acronym in English). One resistance – an area of high atmospheric pressure – promises to raise thermometers across much of Italy. New European temperature records are expected in the Italian islands of Sicily and Sardinia, where temperatures will reach 48 degrees Celsius.
“The highest temperature in European history was broken on August 11, 2021, when the Italian city of Floridia in the Sicilian province of Syracuse recorded a value of 48.8 degrees Celsius. This record may be broken again in the coming days,” says an ESA note released this Thursday.
The anticyclone in question is from the south and is called Cerberus. Divine Comedyby Dante Alighieri).
The animation below highlights the Earth’s surface temperature in Italy between July 9 and 10. The image reveals that different points of the Italian territory such as Rome, Naples, Taranto and Foggia exceeded 45 degrees Celsius. “On the eastern slopes of Mount Etna in Sicily, many temperatures exceeded 50 degrees Celsius” refers to ESA.
Not only Italy, countries like France, Germany, Poland and Spain are also experiencing extreme heat. Data from the European Copernicus Project showed that in some parts of Extremadura, surface temperatures exceeded 60 degrees Celsius on Tuesday. In Madrid and Seville, they reached 46 and 47 degrees Celsius respectively. By the end of this week, the temperature in some parts of the country is expected to reach 44 degrees Celsius.
The start of July was the planet’s hottest week on record, the World Meteorological Organization (WMO) announced on Monday. Ice levels in Antarctica hit record lows in June, 17% below average due to satellite observations, according to the United Nations.
“help” El Nino
This “alarming” news comes shortly after we learned that June was the hottest month in Earth’s recorded history. and coincides with growth El NinoA natural climate phenomenon near the coast of Peru and Ecuador, originating from the unusually warm waters of the eastern Pacific Ocean, and usually accompanied by a slowdown or reversal of the easterly trade winds.
Remember that The temperature measured at the surface of the land is not equal to the temperature of the air. A visualization of the data provided by the Land and Sea Surface Temperature Radiometer (SLSTR) measurements, the main image is a detailed representation of the planet’s land surface temperature. This instrument on the European Sentinel 3 satellites measures only the actual amount of energy radiated from Earth (not air temperature).
“Scientists better understand Earth’s surface temperatures and predict weather patterns and fires. These measurements are especially important to farmers trying to improve irrigation in growing regions and to municipal technicians trying to improve strategies. mitigation Heat in urban areas”, the document says.
A scientific journal study Natural Medicine, published this Monday, estimated that heat waves in Europe in the summer of 2022 caused more than 61,000 deaths. In total, researchers estimate that more than 2,200 deaths may have occurred in Portugal. “This summer is going to be bad,” the ESA warns.
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