(CNN) – Authorities in Italy said the island of Sicily, the largest in the Mediterranean, could have reached a temperature of 48.8 degrees Celsius (119.8 degrees Fahrenheit) for Europe, setting an all-time temperature record.
The city of Syracuse broke the record on Wednesday afternoon, passing an anticyclone referred to as “Lucifer” in Italian media reports and advancing north of the country. A continuous heat wave around the Mediterranean in Europe and North Africa has contributed to the worst. Fire Found there for many years.
According to the World Meteorological Organization (WMO), the highest temperature ever recorded in Europe was 48.0 degrees Celsius (118 degrees Fahrenheit) in Athens, Greece.
The registration in Italy was confirmed by Sicilian authorities, but must be officially verified by the WMO.
A man is recovering from the heat on the Italian island of Sicily on Wednesday.
“Currently there is no reason to go for it, but if possible, we will make a pre-post assessment of the accuracy of the measurement,” said the Sicilian Agricultural Meteorological Service, the official operator of the Sicilian Meteorological Station.
The anticyclone is a high pressure system where the atmospheric pressure is relatively higher than the surrounding air.
In the northern hemisphere, they rotate clockwise, and in the southern hemisphere they rotate in the other direction.
Some sparks were started by firefighters, but scientists say the climate crisis is causing more frequent and intense heat waves and fires, thus causing more destruction.
People cool off Wednesday at sea in Palermo, Sicily.
A report by the UN Panel on Climate Change released on Monday states that 38 types of weather conditions that promote wildfires have increased in southern Europe over the past century. Worldwide, heat waves and droughts increase fires.
Across the Mediterranean this week is 5 to 10 degrees Celsius above average, and dozens of people have been killed in wildfires in southern Europe and North Africa, mostly in Algeria. Deaths have also been reported in Turkey. Parts of Italy and Greece They have been severely affected by the fire, where some villages have been massively destroyed.
