A heat wave carried by the anticyclone “Lucifer” hit Italy this week, which on Wednesday recorded a record temperature of 48.8 degrees in Sicily in the Syracuse region.
The peninsula is currently facing its hottest week of summer, and if national meteorology confirms data from the Sicily region, it will be the highest temperature ever recorded in Italy. The previous record dated from 1999 with 48.5 degrees, still in Sicily.
300 firefighters’ interventions in twelve hours
In Calabria, the Italian tip of the Boot, and in Sicily, firefighters had to carry out 300 interventions in twelve hours, and seven Canadair have been mobilized since dawn, firefighters announced. A 77-year-old man died Wednesday from burns received while trying to shelter his herd in the countryside near Reggio Calabria.
The Madonie, a mountainous area near the Sicilian capital Palermo, have been besieged for several days by flames, fed by wind and heat, which destroy crops, homes and industrial buildings.
The governor of Sicily Nello Musumeci has called for a state of national emergency to be declared for the Madonie. Agriculture Minister Stefano Patuanelli visited the site on Wednesday and promised “aid that we must give to those who have lost everything”.
“The role of agriculture”
“We must also promote the role of agriculture as guardian of the territory. We must ensure that the farmer who takes care of unproductive land, with management serving to prevent fires, is protected and supported, ”he added.
In Calabria, flames threaten the Unesco Global Geopark of Aspromonte, a complex of mountains, ridges and plateaus nearly 2,000 meters high alternating with deep valleys rising on a peninsular fragment of the Apennine chain, offering a spectacular panorama over the Strait of Messina, Mount Etna and the Aeolian Islands.
The president of the environmental NGO WWF Italy called on Tuesday for “the immediate intervention of additional air resources”. “Otherwise it will be too late and we will forever lose a heritage of inestimable value”, he lamented.
The number of fires multiplied by three
He also called for “increased surveillance on the ground because in the areas where the fires have been extinguished new outbreaks have been recorded, obviously lit by unscrupulous criminals”, he denounced.
Sardinia, where a 35-year-old breeder suspected of arson was arrested on Tuesday, is not spared: thirteen fires were recorded for the day of Tuesday alone, and six of them required the intervention of means aerial.
According to Coldiretti, the main agricultural union, the number of fires has more than tripled this summer compared to the average over the same period between 2008 and 2020.
“If on the one hand six out of ten fires are of criminal origin, on the other hand it is necessary to underline the consequences of the closure of farms, the lack of monitoring of forests in the public domain”, highlights the union. , while more than a third of Italy is covered with woods and forests (11.4 million hectares). “We must put an end to the abandonment of the countryside,” he concludes.
Still hot weather to come
In the coming days, the anticyclone responsible for the heat wave overwhelming Italy, aptly named Lucifer, is expected to move north, where temperatures are expected to reach 39-40 degrees in Tuscany for the weekend of August 15. (center) and in Lazio (region of Rome).
In Rome on Wednesday, tourists didn’t seem too bothered by the heat: “I knew it would be hot, but I like it. It doesn’t bother me (…) It’s the purpose of summer to be hot and sweaty and enjoy it! », Confided a 20-year-old French tourist, Nora Vert, crossed near a fountain in the Place d’Espagne.