“Cerberus” is coming: Europe promised hellish heat

A wave of hellish heat hit Europe. According to the latest data, the temperature will reach a record 48 degrees Celsius – it is expected that the wave of heat will spread to the northern regions of the continent.

A Cerberus heatwave is sweeping across Europe, with reports of tourists fainting across the continent and a man killed in northern Italy due to the heat. The temperature could exceed the record 48.8 ° C recorded in Sicily in August 2021, with peaks expected in the near future, according to Sky News.

Temperatures in parts of Mediterranean Europe are forecast to reach 48 degrees Celsius.

The high-pressure system affecting the region, which crossed the Mediterranean from North Africa, was named Cerberus, after the three-headed dog from ancient Greek mythology that guarded the gates to the underworld.

Officials in several countries have prepared emergency measures, mobile phone alerts and staffing adjustments.

The European Space Agency has warned that the heat wave will also be felt in parts of Northern Europe.

“Italy, Spain, France, Germany and Poland are facing extreme heat, with temperatures on the islands of Sicily and Sardinia expected to rise to 48 degrees Celsius – potentially the highest temperatures ever recorded in Europe,” the space agency said.

As heat waves are expected to reach unprecedented levels in parts of Europe in the coming hours and days, a major milestone has already been recorded a little further north, Sky News notes.

Norwegian meteorologists report a record high temperature of 28.8°C in the Arctic at Slettness Für at the northern tip of Norway.

As Sky News emphasizes, this figure exceeds the previous record since July 1964, when the thermometer reached 27.6 ° C.

This comes after the UN World Meteorological Organization said this week that global temperatures recorded in early July were among the hottest on record.

The heatwave that engulfed southern Europe has been building up over the course of several months. And soon things will get much worse, experts predict. Since mid-April, temperatures have been consistently above 40 degrees Celsius in many areas. But in the Mediterranean islands of Sicily and Sardinia, temperatures are expected to even beat the continental record of 48.8°C set in August 2021 in the coming days.

And that’s just the temperature. New data shows that the earth has become even hotter, Sky News points out. The European Space Agency’s Copernicus thermal sensing satellite has found that land surface temperatures have already exceeded 45 degrees Celsius in large areas of Italy. And along the eastern slopes of Mount Etna, a volcano in Sicily, on July 9 and 10, the temperature of the sun-scorched earth exceeded 50 degrees Celsius. And it was late in the morning. Temperatures would have been even warmer during the day – and likely even hotter as the heat intensified over the course of the week.

Ground temperature matters, explains Sky News. In rural areas, it increases the risk of wildfires as the vegetation dries out faster. And in urban areas, concrete, brick, and pavement retain heat during the night, so the air doesn’t get as cold as it does in the surrounding countryside. This is called the heat island effect, and it increases the risk of death for vulnerable people.

So why is it so hot here? Heat waves are, of course, natural phenomena. In this case, warm air moved northward from the Sahara in Africa. But heatwaves are becoming more common, they last longer, and peak temperatures are getting higher, Sky News notes. This is the result of an increase in background temperature due to climate change, about 1.2°C compared to pre-industrial times, and the persistence of extreme weather.