New thermometers needed
A heatwave is sweeping across parts of southern Europe and north-west Africa, with potential record-breaking temperatures in the coming days. Temperatures are expected to surpass 40C (104F) in parts of Spain, France, Greece, Croatia and Turkey. In Italy, temperatures could reach as high as 48.8C (119.8F). A red alert warning has been issued for 10 cities, including Rome, Bologna and Florence.
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A satellite image recorded by the EU’s Copernicus Sentinel mission revealed that the land temperature in the Extremadura region had hit 60C on Tuesday.
60C! That’s not even on the thermometer! It’s 140F!
Italian weather forecasters are warning that the next heatwave, dubbed Charon after the ferryman who delivered souls into the underworld, will push temperatures back up towards 43C in Rome and a possible 47C on the island of Sardinia.
Europe’s hottest-ever temperature of 48.8C (119.8F) was recorded near Syracuse on the Italian island of Sicily in August 2021.
A new study says 61,672 people died in Europe as a result of the heat last year. ISGlobal Institute in Barcelona said Italy had most deaths that could be attributable to the heat, with 18,010, while Spain had 11,324 and Germany 8,173.
The new normal.
That 60 °C measurement by satellite is possibly ground temperature, not air temperature. According to Wikipedia, the official record air temperature is a comparatively cool 56.7 °C (129.2 °F) measured in 1913 at Furnace Creek, Death Valley. You’d think with all the warming over the past century, that such a record would not stand for 110 years! Anyway, according to the wikipedia article, ground temperatures can theoretically reach over 90 °C, and indeed there are several satellite measurements in that range.
Still, I am glad I’m not in Spain right now.
We were in Extremadura in May. It was already hot enough then. And much of Spain was experiencing a drought. It’s always been hot and dry in the summer (outside of the north*), but it’s slowly becoming a desert.
*Hollywood lied to you. The rain in Spain is mostly coastly.
I guess my ancestors got it right. When the ice started withdrawing, they followed the reindeer herds north from Iberia and ended up in Norway. I suppose this migration took very many generations, though. The current climate change seems rather more abrupt.
Here in Minnesota it’s mostly Ghostly. Again, today, there was a 72% chance of rain. But, those remaining 28% were a cloud too far.