Italy is facing scorching heat in the south and deadly storms in the North, resulting in at least six deaths due to the extreme weather.
Early Tuesday, severe storms struck northern Italy, leading to the deaths of a teenager and a woman who were killed by falling trees.
In the southern Italian island of Sicily and the coastal city of Reggio Calabria, four elderly people died due to wildfires.
According to The Guardian, The severe storm damage in the area resulted in at least 400 emergency calls to Italy’s fire service for assistance with storm damage.
Northern Italy has experienced relentless severe weather in the past few days, including tornadoes and strong winds. Just last week, over 100 people were injured in the Veneto region after tennis ball-sized hail fell from the sky.
While storms caused disturbances in the North, the south of Italy is enduring an intense heat wave. On Monday, temperatures in some areas of Sicily reached 47.4 degrees Celsius (117.3 degrees Fahrenheit).
The scorching heat is creating favorable conditions for fires, which have resulted in at least one fatality.
On Monday night, more than 40 fires broke out in Sicily, including one at the Bellolampo landfill that produced toxic fumes, evacuating over 1,500 people and causing damage to several homes.
Due to the fires, Palermo’s Falcone Borsellino airport experienced a closure on Tuesday for several hours. However, it reopened later in the morning, allowing major airlines to operate with significant delays for both landing and takeoff.
On Tuesday, Italy’s Minister for Civil Protection and Marine Policies, Nello Musumeci, expressed that the nation is currently facing extremely tough times.
“We are living one of the most complicated days of the last decades: storms, tornadoes, giant hail in the North; torrid heat and devastating fires in the Centre-South. While we mourn the three victims of these twenty-four hours, I feel I have to thank the firefighters, the civil protection managers and volunteers, the police forces, the forestry workers, and all those who are mobilized in the most difficult trenches.”
A recently published study revealed that the heatwave in southern Europe would have been “virtually impossible” without the impact of climate change.
