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Sicily hits 48.8degC, the highest temperature ever recorded in Europe

      
Environment 12 August 2021

By Michael Le Page

A firefighter battles the flames after a wildfire broke out in
Petralia Soprana, Italy, on 10 August 2021

Vigili del Fuoco/via REUTERS

The highest temperature ever recorded in Europe was provisionally
reported on 11 August. The town of Syracuse on the Italian island of
Sicily reached 48.8degC, 0.8degC higher than the previous European
record.

High temperatures are also being recorded elsewhere. In Tunisia, the
capital Tunis hit 49degC on 11 August according to Reuters, more than 2
degrees higher than the previous record of 46.8degC in 1982.

These record extreme temperatures across a swathe of southern Europe
and northern Africa are almost certainly a result of global warming.
The hot and dry conditions have led to many devastating fires. Italy
has declared a state of emergency, and in Greece thousands of people
had to be evacuated from the island of Evia as flames spread. The
immediate cause of the heatwave is a ridge of high pressure over the
Mediterranean, forming what is known as a heat dome.

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"Record-breaking temperatures in June 2019 saw the French temperature
record exceed 45.0degC for the first time, and our analysis found that
event was five times more likely because of climate change. Although
we haven't yet been able to run an in-depth study on the current
situation, I think it's going to be clear that climate change has
made this current event more extreme," said Peter Stott at the UK's
Met Office in a statement.

Read more: 13 things we learned from the landmark IPCC climate report

The previous record for Europe, according to the World Meteorological
Organization, is 48degC in Athens in 1977. The new record has to be
validated by the WMO before it becomes official, which means checking
that the local weather station is accurate and correctly set up.

Maximiliano Herrera, who monitors extreme temperatures around the
world, told The Washington Post that the weather station has
high-quality instruments and is well-maintained, suggesting the
record will be confirmed.

The world has warmed by 1.09degC above 1850 to 1900 levels, according
to the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) report out
earlier this week. This warming is making extreme weather such as
heatwaves happen more often, and also making such events more severe.

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More on these topics:

  * climate

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