Europe needs to prepare for temperatures of 50C, says Met Office
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Europe will have to brace for summer temperatures of 50C in future, the Met Office warned.
The 48.8C recorded in the town of Floridia, near Syracuse in eastern Sicily, was a harbinger of things to come, the Met Office said.
Exceeding the previous record of 48C in Athens in 1977, it “raises concerns that even higher temperatures are potential in future, possibly even exceeding 50C,” the Met Office said.
“The chances each summer of seeing really extreme temperatures are pretty high now,” said Prof Peter Stott, the Met Office’s leading expert on climate change and an authority on European heatwaves.
“We can’t say exactly when it is likely to happen, but Europe will need to prepare for the eventuality of further records being broken with temperatures above 50C being possible in Europe in future, most likely close to the Mediterranean where the influence of hot air from North Africa is strongest.”
Since the pre-industrial era, the temperature in North Africa has increased by about 2C – far more than the average temperature rise around the world of 1.1C.
Photo: Tourists near a fountain in Rome, Italy. EPA-EFE/MASSIMO PERCOSSI
