‘Cerberus’ heat wave sweeps across Europe

Rome, July 13 A blistering and deadly heat wave, which the Italian Meteorological Society has named Cerberus after the three-headed monster that features in Dante’s 'Inferno' as a guard to the gates of hell, is sweeping across parts of southern Europe.

“The earth has a high fever and Italy is feeling it firsthand,” Luca Mercalli, head of the Italian Meteorological Society, told CNN on Wednesday.

As a result of the heat wave, temperatures are expected to surpass 40 degrees Celsius in parts of Spain, France, Germany, Greece, Croatia and Turkey, reports the BBC.

In Italy, temperatures could reach as high as 48.8 degrees, prompting authorities to issue a red alert for 27 cities this week, including Rome, Florence and Bologna.

Very high temperatures in central and southern Italy are predicted for Friday, when the capital Rome could see record-breaking temperatures between 40 and 45 degrees Celsius, CNN reported.

On Tuesday, a 44-year-old road construction worker died in hospital after he collapsed by the side of the road in the northern Italian city of Lodi.

“We are facing a wave of abnormal heat at unbearable levels. Perhaps it should be the case that during the hottest hours all useful precautions are taken to avoid tragedies like the one that happened today in Lodi,” CNN quoted politician Nicola Fratoianni, who has petitioned for regulations to protect workers during the ongoing heat wave, as saying in a Twitter post.

In Rome, several tourists collapsed due to heat stroke on Tuesday and Wednesday, including an unnamed British tourist who passed out in front of the Colosseum in Rome.

The UK Met Office said that temperatures will peak on Friday.

Europe's hottest ever temperature of 48.8 Celsius was recorded near Syracuse on the Italian island of Sicily in August 2021.

The 2022 heat wave killed 61,672 people in Europe, with Italy accounting for the highest fatality rate with around 18,000 deaths.