Central and southern Italy and Sardinia will bear the brunt of a heatwave showing little sign of easing, according to iLMeteo.it, with only a brief northern reprieve expected at the weekend.
Italy faces another week of intense heat, with central and southern regions and Sardinia set to bear the worst of it, one of the country’s leading meteorologists said on Monday.
“Maximum temperatures will range between 39°C and 41°C across many areas of central and southern Italy and across all of Sardinia,” said Federico Brescia, meteorologist for iLMeteo.it.
Heat reaching unusual heights
The scale of the warming is unusual even at altitude. Sardinia will see temperatures of 30°C even at 1,500 metres, a reference altitude normally associated with far cooler conditions. Brescia noted that the heat is pushing the freezing level — the altitude at which temperatures drop to zero — to extraordinary heights, on track to exceed 5,000 metres.
On the ground, Florence is forecast to reach 39°C and Rome 38°C. The north of the country will not escape entirely, with hot, muggy conditions expected and the Po Valley climbing to 37–38°C in the afternoons, although the intensity there will fall slightly short of the extremes further south.
No end in sight
Medium-term forecasts show little prospect of the heatwave breaking over the course of the week. The only exception is likely to come between Friday and Saturday, when a slight weakening of the high pressure system’s northern edge should bring a modest drop in temperatures across the north, along with a few localised thunderstorms.
Elsewhere on the peninsula, sunshine and static, unchanging weather will remain the dominant pattern.
Day-by-day outlook
- Tuesday 14th: Sunny and hot in the north, with some showers over the eastern Alps; sunny and very hot in the centre; sunny everywhere in the south.
- Wednesday 15th: Hot and sunny in the north; abnormally hot and sunny in the centre; sunny and exceptionally hot in the south, with peaks of 41°C expected, particularly in Sardinia.
- Outlook: More unsettled weather returns to the north over the weekend, while abnormally hot conditions persist across central and southern Italy.
