ROME (AFP) – Italy issued a red alert warning for the capital Rome on Thursday and Portugal and France reported their hottest days in May as Europe struggled with a heatwave that has smashed records across the continent.
Britain and France have already reported their hottest-ever May days this week as a “heat dome” brought sweltering temperatures usually unseen until high summer to western Europe.
Several people have died in both Britain and France, mostly in drowning accidents that authorities have linked with the baking heat, while Portugal’s Health Minister Ana Paula Martins reported that the heatwave had caused a spike in hospitalizations.
The mercury peaked at 40.3C in Portugal’s central town of Mora on Wednesday, topping the previous record of 40C from May 2001, the meteorological agency announced on Thursday, warning that the heatwave had a “high likelihood” of lasting into the beginning of June.
Italy has so far been spared the highest temperatures but on Thursday officials warned people in Rome and four northern cities to stay out of the sun.
“We’re sweating a lot,” said Spanish tourist Nana Martinez Garcia, trying to stay cool outside Rome’s Colosseum on Thursday with temperatures hitting 32C.
“We’re drinking a lot of water so we can cool down,” she said, with her friend Maria Angeles Mellinas Tello chiming in that they were “staying in the shade” whenever they could.
The first red alert of the year in Italy — which also covered Florence, Bologna, Brescia and Turin — warned of “possible negative effects on the health of healthy, active people.”
Scientists say human-driven climate change is amplifying such extremes, with weather events like heatwaves, droughts and floods becoming more intense and frequent.
