Highest ever

Ominous.

Five years after Floridia registered Europe’s highest-ever temperature, residents ​say extreme heat is no longer measured by records but by its impact on daily life, keeping people indoors, reducing social interaction and threatening ‌livelihoods.

The August 2021 record of 48.8 degrees Celsius (119.8 degrees Fahrenheit) turned the Sicilian town into a symbol of Europe’s warming climate as the continent emerged from COVID-19 restrictions.

Today, increasingly frequent and prolonged heatwaves are driving people indoors, leaving streets and piazzas deserted and prompting some residents to compare the extreme heat to a new form of lockdown.

The shift is visible across the town of 20,000 on the outskirts of ​Syracuse, the ancient Greek city on Sicily’s southeastern coast. Piazza del Popolo, long Floridia’s social hub and lined with cafes, palm trees and municipal buildings, is nearly ​empty for much of the day.

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On August 11, 2021, Sicily’s Agrometeorological Information Service (SIAS) measured a temperature of 48.8 C in Monasteri, a rural district about 5 km (3 miles) from Floridia’s centre. In 2024, the World Meteorological Organization certified it as the highest temperature ever recorded in continental Europe, a mark that still stands.

And the direction is not going to change.

Across Europe, climate change has been linked to increasingly frequent and intense weather extremes, from drought and wildfires to torrential rainfall.

Sicily has emerged as one of Europe’s climate frontlines.

In January, Cyclone Harry produced a record 16.66-metre (55-foot) wave between Sicily ​and Malta. Wildfires have taken a growing toll with the island accounting for roughly 70% of southern Italy’s burned area between January ​and July, according to ⁠a Legambiente analysis based on EFFIS-Copernicus data.

Agriculture, a pillar of the island’s economy, is increasingly vulnerable to climate change.

In 2021, more than 3,000 beehives were lost in the area of Floridia and honey production plunged by 80%. “The decline in bee populations and the number of beekeepers, together with the loss of pollinators due to climate change and the widespread use of pesticides, is ⁠leading to ​a reduction in biodiversity and lower quality and yields in agricultural production,” agronomist Francesco Bellomi said.

And it’s only going to get worse.