The World Meteorological Organization (WMO) has confirmed a new record temperature for continental Europe. On August 11, 2021, no less than 48.8 degrees Celsius was measured in Sicily. And with that, the previous European heat record was broken.
During the extreme heat wave in August 2021, an automatic weather station in Syracuse, on the Italian island of Sicily, measured a temperature of no less than 48.8 degrees. After careful research, that temperature has now also been formally confirmed by the WMO, the department of the United Nations that studies the weather. “An international panel of atmospheric scientists verified the temperature,” the UN agency said on Tuesday in a press release.
The old heat record in Europe was 48 degrees. That temperature was measured in July 1977 in the Greek capital Athens and in its suburb Elefsina.
“Possibly even bigger outliers in the future”
The WMO calls it “a snapshot of our current climate”. “It is possible, even likely, that there will be larger outliers in the future.” Researcher Randall Cerveny adds that the record “shows the worrying trend of heat records.”
World record
The highest temperature ever measured in Belgium is 41.8 degrees on July 25, 2019 in Begijnendijk. The world record is held by Death Valley in the United States, where a temperature of 56.7 degrees was recorded in 1913.
48.8 degrees in Sicily: “Like 20 hairdryers in front of your door” (+)
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WATCH ALSO. 41.8 (!) degrees: we (didn’t) do this on the hottest day ever in Belgium
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