Status: 11.08.2021 9:43 p.m.
The high temperatures still have a firm grip on the Mediterranean region. Temperatures of 48.8 degrees Celsius have now been measured in Sicily. If this is officially confirmed, it would be a new Europe-wide record.
Favored by high temperatures, the forest fires in the Mediterranean region have been eating their way through the landscape uncontrollably for weeks. The heat in Sicily could now have reached an all-time high. According to the regional authorities, the thermometer climbed to 48.8 degrees near Syracuse.
This value is not yet official and has yet to be checked by the Italian weather service. If the measurements are confirmed, however, that would be a new heat record – not just for Italy, but for all of Europe. The previous Italian heat record of 48.5 degrees was also measured in 1999 in Sicily. The previous European record of 48 degrees was set in Greece in 1977.
Hoch “Lucifer” could exacerbate the situation
The high “Lucifer”, which is causing the heat wave, is expected to move north in the coming days and bring temperatures of around 40 degrees to Tuscany and the Lazio region in central Italy at the weekend. For the fire brigade in Calabria and Sicily, the high temperatures are extremely bad news as the forest fires continue to rage.
The flames continued to blaze in Greece as well. On the particularly affected island of Evia, however, the situation has recently eased: “I think we can say that the fire fronts are slowly being brought under control,” said the mayor of the city of Istiea, Giannis Kontzias, of the state television broadcaster ERT. “Yesterday we saw the sunlight for the first time in days,” he said in view of the huge billows of smoke that had darkened the sky for days.
900 firefighters in action
The fire had already broken out nine days earlier. Almost 900 firefighters, including emergency services from abroad, are on site. The fires on Evia and other parts of the country have already killed three people and hundreds more lost their homes.
In the mountainous region of Gortynia on the Peloponnese peninsula, the fire brigade concentrated on keeping the flames away from the densely forested Mainalo Mountain. Villages are currently not in danger, but conditions are changing every hour, the authorities said. The fire brigade in Gortynia is supported by numerous emergency services from abroad, including Germany, France, Great Britain and the Czech Republic.
Turkey is fighting fire and floods
Tunisia and Algeria are also suffering from the heat wave. In northern Algeria, the fire brigade and army fought countless forest fires on Wednesday, mostly in Kabylia, a heavily forested mountain region east of the capital Algiers. In one day alone, 50 new fires broke out, reported the state news agency APS, the death toll rose to 69. Among the dead were at least 28 soldiers who were on site to support the fire department.
Turkey is currently fighting two extreme weather conditions. For example, firefighters tried to put out forest fires in the southwestern province of Mugla, which had been blazing there since July 28th. Eight people and countless animals perished, and thousands fled from the fires that were more than 200 at times. In the north of the country, on the other hand, there were flash floods and landslides after heavy rain. In the provinces of Bartin, Kastamonu, Sinop and Samsun on the Black Sea, the floods carried cars with them, and helicopters had to rescue people from the roofs of their houses. Two people were missing and dozen injured.