Temperatures reached almost 47C in southern Italy on Wednesday and factory workers threatened to strike over the extreme heat, while wildfires continued to rage in Greece and temperatures in coastal waters around Spain broke records.
In Sicily, where the European record of 48.8C was registered in August 2021, the mercury climbed to almost 47C in the area between Mazara del Vallo, in the province of Trapani, and Sciacca, in Agrigento province, according to data from ilMeteo.it. Temperatures in Sardinia reached 46C while Rome – where there were energy blackouts on Tuesday due to pressure on the grid believed to be from air conditioners – peaked at 38C.
“This is apocalyptic,” said Claudia Bivona, 57, a teacher in Trapani. “Something we had never experienced before. And it will get worse and worse. I’m thinking of the elderly and also of animals. What is happening is not normal.”
Nuccia Orlando, a nurse at a hospital in the Sicilian province of Caltanissetta, said: “We are melting. This heat is absurd. My car’s thermometer registered 52C inside the vehicle today. Of course, I had left it in the sun. But still, we are talking about 52C.”
Italy’s health minister, Orazio Schillaci, said an information line would be activated amid concerns about deaths from heat-related illnesses. A man in his 60s is believed to have died of a heat-related illness after fainting in his bakery near the northern city of Padua, and a 44-year-old road worker died in Milan last week.
“You can protect yourself against the heat in a major way by drinking lots of water, opting for a diet based on vegetables and fresh fruit and avoiding excessive consumption of fatty foods and alcohol,” Schillaci said. “Special attention should be paid to the most fragile, elderly and children.”
The carmaker Stellantis said it was monitoring the situation at its Pomigliano d’Arco plant near Naples after workers were sent home early on Tuesday because it was too hot to work. Workers at the battery maker Magneti Marelli threatened an eight-hour strike at a plant in Sulmona, in the central Abruzzo region. A statement from unions said the “asphyxiating heat is putting the lives of workers at risk”.
The CGIL union said temperatures in factories in the southern region of Basilicata were nearing 40C. “The arrival of the heat is a serious problem for workers because it puts their health and safety at risk,” it said. “After the Stellantis case we are getting many signals from several factories across the region. For this reason we ask workers to turn to their unions if health and safety guarantees are not being met.”
Unions have also expressed concern for agricultural workers, most of whom are seasonal workers from outside the EU, and construction workers. Farm workers in Marsica, Abruzzo, are working 4am-11am shifts as a way of avoiding the hottest hours.
In Greece, staff at the Acropolis and other ancient sites will stop work for four hours a day from Thursday in protest at working conditions.
Access to the Unesco-listed Acropolis had been restricted for three days from last Friday but the measures were lifted on Monday as the thermometer dropped before a new heatwave was predicted from Thursday.
“Given the problems we have faced … in recent days, measures have been unanimously decided to protect the health of the security staff … as well as visitors,” the PEYFA union said.
Water bombers flown in from Italy and France joined the operation to extinguish wildfires often fanned by strong winds around Athens.
In a week that has highlighted the realities of the climate emergency, thousands of people have had to flee their homes as a result of the forest fires and countless others have lost properties.
In Spain, coastal waters hit a record high for this time of year. Aemet, the national weather office, said the average temperature of the water off Spain in mid-July reached 24.6C, 2.2C higher than the average for the season.
The situation was even more worrying since the summer is far from over, said Rubén del Campo, an Aemet spokesperson. “There is still room for the sea to warm even more,” he said.
Temperatures in some parts of Spain’s Mediterranean waters have hit 28C.
