Days of suffocating heat await us. And even if we are still at the end of May, the temperatures will practically be from July. It’s all the fault of the subtropical anticyclone that is affecting much of Europe, including Italy. The record wave of hot air will particularly affect the North and Center and will not even spare the high-altitude mountain areas, while in the southern regions such as Sicily and Calabria the situation will be less hot (with maximum temperatures around 28°C).
The most critical hours, with peaks that will exceed 36°C, are expected between Tuesday 26th and Wednesday 27th May. In anticipation of these anomalous temperatures, the Ministry of Health has released the first bulletin on this season’s heat waves.
Italian cities with an orange sticker
But where will you suffer the heat the most? According to the Ministry’s bulletin, for tomorrow there will be 12 cities with an orange sticker:
To these, on Wednesday 27th, another 3 cities will be added, again with an orange sticker. These are: Latina, Milan and Verona. Level 2 corresponds to high temperatures and climatic conditions that can have negative effects on the health of the population, in particular for the most vulnerable subjects, such as the elderly or those suffering from pathologies.
How long will the sultry heat last?
The most intense phase of the sultry heat should ease already between Thursday and Friday, when slightly cooler currents arriving from the East will bring a moderate drop in temperatures especially in the Centre-North. In many areas the maximum values will return below 32°C, although they will still remain above the typical averages of the period.
From Thursday, atmospheric instability will increase, with the possibility of showers, thunderstorms and hailstorms in mountainous areas and, locally, also in the plains in the North. Despite this milder parenthesis, the heat does not seem destined to disappear completely even with the arrival of June. The latest weather trends indicate that high pressure will continue to dominate much of the Mediterranean and southern Italy, while more unstable Atlantic currents will mainly affect central Europe.
Sources: Il Meteo / Ministry of Health
