Europe is on its way to record heat: “Italy sits on the first floor”

The desert heat continues to move over the Mediterranean. Temperatures are expected to rise to 45 degrees this week in Italy, Greece and Spain.

It’s just a few degrees from the hottest temperature ever recorded in Europe. The record is 48.8 degrees and it was measured on the Italian island of Sardinia just two summers ago.

Risk group: the whole population

Italian health authorities are now issuing a red heat warning for eight cities. Florence, Bologna and Rome are three of them. The warning means that the heat is so intense that not only the elderly and young children are at risk – now the entire population is at risk.

says Luca Mercalli, head of the Italian Meteorological Institute CNN that “the land is suffering from a great fever.”

– Italy will feel it from the first floor.

“Don’t die at work. Don’t die from the heat.”

Earlier this week, a road construction worker collapsed on the side of the road during a work shift in the Italian city of Lodi. Politician Nicola Fratoianni is now calling for rules to protect workers during the ongoing heatwave.

“You must not die at work, you must not die of heat. We are facing an unbearable heat wave. Perhaps in the hottest hours all possible precautions will be taken, to avoid tragedies like the one that happened today in Lodi,” Fratoianni wrote. on Twitter.