Italy burns by a suffocating heat wave that they have baptized as “Apocalypse”. This phenomenon is leaving highs of up to 42 degrees in the center and north of the country, where the fires are spreading due to the lack of rain and the worst drought in decades.
The thermometers have shot up again this Tuesday and, according to weather forecasts, they will continue to rise due to masses of hot air arriving directly from the Sahara desert.
The wave has been baptized as “Apocalypse4800” in reference to the thermal zero quota, located at 4,800 meters above sea level, so that nowhere in the territory, not even in the Italian Alps, do temperatures drop below zero degrees.
In the big cities, tourists and locals shelter from this panorama by seeking shade and going into shops to have a break in front of the air conditioners.
for the shadow
“We walk in the shade, we try to enter the stores to take advantage of the air conditioners and with a lot of water. But the heat is very strong,” a Chilean tourist explained to Efe, who highlights the difference in temperature between Ravenna (center) and Rome, “where it costs to walk”.
With up to 38 degrees in the capital, tourists appreciate the multitude of fountains in the streets that allow them to cool off and hydrate during rush hours, a “little oasis”, according to Summer and Adam, two tourists from New Jersey (USA). ) that have downloaded an app to find them. “It is also important to make a stop during the hours of maximum heat, from one to three, go to the hotel and relax,” they add.
five red dots
The situation will worsen in the coming days: at the moment there are only five “red points”, all of them in the center and north of the peninsula, but on Thursday the affected cities will reach fourteen, including Rome, Bologna, Florence, Milan, Genoa and Turin.
Heat is not only a problem for tourists and workers, especially those who work abroad, but also for forests and landscapes, at extreme risk of fire, the European Forest Fire Information System (Effis) warned today. .
The regions most affected by the fires this summer, aggravated by the drought and the lack of water to put them out, have been Sicily, Apulia and Calabria (south), but also the Italian capital, which in the last month has suffered several dozen fires. fires.
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“Italy is experiencing a fiery July, with three daily fires since the beginning of the month and the multiplication of forest fires throughout the country, from Veneto to Tuscany and Rome,” said the Coldiretti farmers’ association today.
Since January, almost 23,000 hectares have burned in Italy in more than 200 different fires, a figure that, although not a record, is higher than the average of the last decade.