The European Center for Medium-Range Weather Forecasts (ECMWF) had announced it: El Niño will return very soon, causing record temperatures in the oceans. And Italy could also have to deal, sooner than one imagines, with an earlier and much hotter summer and extreme weather phenomena.
And so it was and we saw it during the weekend just gone, with peaks across the entire peninsula reaching 35 degrees, well above the average for the end of May.
According to the Italian Meteo Center, a vast high pressure field is dominating the continent, with ground values reaching 1030 hPa in the central sectors of the Old Continent. In short, a real “bubble” of hot air that will continue to hover over Europe, especially in the western areas, causing temperatures well above the seasonal average. In some areas the thermal anomalies could even reach +10°C compared to the typical values of the period, and this situation could last for several more days.
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And, obviously, Italy will also be affected by this anomalous heat wave, in particular the Central-Northern regions, where maximum temperatures will continue to easily exceed 30°C, with a climate that will be more reminiscent of the beginning of July than the end of May.
Record heat also in Great Britain and France
The anomalous heat wave that is hitting Europe is also causing exceptional temperatures to be recorded in the United Kingdom, where the heat broke records never reached before in the month of May: according to the Met Office, at Heathrow they reached 33.5°C, exceeding the previous monthly historical record. Even more impressive is the data on night-time temperatures: in London the minimum did not fall below 19.2°C, a value never recorded in over a century of measurements for this period of the year.
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British experts point out that records of this type are normally exceeded by a few tenths of a degree, while this time the temperature difference was exceptional. Similar temperatures, in fact, are typical of the height of summer and certainly not of late spring. The Met Office also predicts temperatures above 34°C, well above the previous record of 32.4°C dating back to 1922.
France is also dealing with unseasonable heat. High temperatures have had dramatic consequences during some outdoor sports competitions: a 53-year-old runner died and several other participants were hospitalized for heat-related illnesses. And not only that: the spokesperson of the French government, Maud Bregeonhas just spoken of “seven deaths”, including “at least five drownings”, linked to the heat wave.
In many French cities, health authorities have invited the population, especially the elderly, children and frail people, to limit activities during the hottest hours and to pay particular attention to hydration.
Extreme events
In addition to all this, according to the new 2026 data from the Legambiente City Climate Observatory, in From the beginning of 2026 to May, 82 extreme weather events were recorded in Italy. Among the most recurring ones: flooding from intense rain (22), damage from wind (20), 14 damage from storm surges and river flooding (11).
Over 2 billion euros is the overall estimate of the damage caused in Italy by Cyclone Harry, among the most serious events of recent years and which hit Sicily, Calabria and Sardinia in 2026. The cyclone also hit one much of the coasts of Mediterranean causing ten victims in Spain, Greece, Tunisia and Algeria; as well as having contributed to the shipwreck and death of between 380 and 1000 migrants who left Libya and Tunisia.
