Peninsular Italy and southern Balkans

[Josh Romano]

I decided to create this topic to follow the indicated areas, because northern Italy follows different patterns and needs a separate discussion from the Italian peninsula.
After a very hot month of May in the second part, June seems able to be among the hottest of the historical series, above all for the persistence and continuity of the heat, which is a characteristic of the current Italian trend.

[Josh Romano]

Starting tomorrow but especially from Wednesday to Saturday, many locations in peninsular Italy will exceed 40 °, in some cases beating the monthly records of the month of June, which are concentrated in the years 1982,2003,2007 and 2019. Even the hill towns they will have temperatures widely above 35/37 degrees, with peaks of 40/41. In particular, in Sardinia it will be possible to locally exceed 45 °, a temperature worthy of the Tunisian hinterland. But with the warming underway these things are now more and more frequent in the summer.

Edited June 20, 2022 by Josh Romano

[mountain shadow]

1 hour ago, Josh Romano said:

Starting tomorrow but especially from Wednesday to Saturday, many locations in peninsular Italy will exceed 40 °, in some cases beating the monthly records of the month of June, which are concentrated in the years 1982,2003,2007 and 2019. Even the hill towns they will have temperatures widely above 35/37 degrees, with peaks of 40/41. In particular, in Sardinia it will be possible to locally exceed 45 °, a temperature worthy of the Tunisian hinterland. But with the warming underway these things are now more and more frequent in the summer.

Indeed. The whole of Italy unlikely to see any rainfall at all over the next 10 days according to the ECM. 

 

[Josh Romano]

Today is the first scorching day of this third heat wave, with highs widely above 35 ° in the Po valley and especially in Tuscany and Sardinia. On the coasts, the heat is slightly more contained but extremely sultry. In the next few days the heat will intensify and even more from Friday it will exceed 36/38 degrees in Rome, Naples, Bari, even 38/39 in Cagliari and Florence, with a further worsening of heat at the beginning of next week in the south . Temperatures above 35 ° in the plains are also expected in the south of the Balkans, with peaks of 40 °.

[Josh Romano]

Today 38 C are expected in Rome. This June should be the second hottest postwar in peninsular Italy, after that of 2003.

[Josh Romano]

Tomorrow it could touch and exceed 40 C degrees in Rome, beating the monthly records of 1982 and 2019 and in Caserta, my hometown in Campania, where 40 C was exceeded only once in July and once in August. ...

[Josh Romano]

Rome Ciampino had various readings of 39 ° (always rounded) in the early afternoon: the peak of 37.5 ° C of June 1982 was certainly exceeded, while the absolute record should remain unassailable at this lap.

Rome Fiumicino: 38 degrees for a long period between late morning and early afternoon. The record for June of 36.5 °, dating back to 2019, has been disintegrated. The absolute record of 38.6 ° C dating back to July 1983 may also have fallen, but perhaps it has resisted.

Roma Urbe: the record for June was 38.0 ° C and dated back to 2019, it was destroyed today with various measurements at 40 ° C; the absolute record of 40.5 ° C in August 2007 could also have fallen, but that is not certain.

[Josh Romano]

The heat records of June 27, 2022

 

Meteo Italia: CALDO a Giugno come non era mai successo, tutti i dati definitivi dei record - METEO GIORNALE

WWW.METEOGIORNALE.IT

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Il 27 giugno si è scritta una pagina di meteo storica. La vampata di caldo sahariano ha mostrato entità eccezionale soprattutto sulle regioni centrali

 

[Josh Romano]

Today 37 C in Rome, with quite low relative humidity.

[Josh Romano]

From the second half of May, an exceptionally warm period began in the southern Balkans. 2 days ago 39 C was reached in Tirana, 38 C in Podgorica but for weeks the highs in the two cities almost always exceed 35 C.

[Methuselah]

3 hours ago, Josh Romano said:

From the second half of May, an exceptionally warm period began in the southern Balkans. 2 days ago 39 C was reached in Tirana, 38 C in Podgorica but for weeks the highs in the two cities almost always exceed 35 C.

Just found this on the BBC, Josh. I don't know whether it's peninsular Italy, though; I'm British and we Brits love to remain ignorant as far as other European countries are concerned:

Drought emergency declared in northern Italy

WWW.BBC.CO.UK

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The drought is threatening more then 30% of Italy's farm produce, an agricultural union warns.

 

[Josh Romano]

In these days a temporary attenuation of the heat is taking place, more sensitive in the Adriatic regions, weaker in the Tyrrhenian ones but the extreme heat will soon return to peninsular Italy and the western Balkans.

[Summer8906]

On 05/07/2022 at 06:35, Josh Romano said:

From the second half of May, an exceptionally warm period began in the southern Balkans. 2 days ago 39 C was reached in Tirana, 38 C in Podgorica but for weeks the highs in the two cities almost always exceed 35 C.

Interesting, I am currently in northern Greece, near Mount Olympus (county of Pieria) so not a million miles away from Tirana, but, while it has been hot and sunny here it has been mostly non-extreme since June 17th when I arrived. A brief exception was around June 21st/22nd when it got very hot for around 48hrs, perhaps about 35; and on July 1st it was exceedingly humid. Don't have highs but typical temp around 1200-1300 according to temperature displays on shops has been around 29C, which would make typical maxima around 31C at a guess. I would imagine the mean max is around 30 (people say the temps here are about 3C lower than Thessaloniki, which is 33). So a shade above average but not much. Nights on the other hand seem to have been very warm - often above 25C at 2200 so perhaps failing to go below 20 most nights, while I think the long-term mean is below 20. Most days have had distant visible convection and several nights with distant lightning.

Today is another matter. Unseasonably cool, dull and damp - for one day, the same temperature displays showed 17C (!) here at 1230, so like an average southern England day in late September and perhaps 11C below average (assuming it reached around 19 this afternoon) - equivalent to perhaps 11C in Southern England.  Yesterday some very dramatic storms, but I think there's a Greece thread here so will post in more detail on that.

The coming week seems to be relatively "cool" for much of the time (26-28) before reaching 31-32 next weekend so resumption of the earlier conditions. Most days though are drier and less oppressively humid than such temps would be in the UK, though July 1st, and to some degree the 2nd, were exceedingly humid and uncomfortable. There was a storm nearby on the 1st but unfortunately it missed here - the rain would have been much more welcome than your standard Atlantic low in the UK!

Edited July 9, 2022 by Summer8906

[Josh Romano]

The Mediterranean summer is a nighmare

[Summer8906]

On 12/07/2022 at 08:37, Josh Romano said:

The Mediterranean summer is a nighmare

So far here (Pieria, Greece) it hasn't really been a nightmare, save for about two days (June 24 and 25) which have been unusually hot and two days at the start of July (July 1 and 2) which were slightly less hot but exceedingly humid, July 1 particularly so. This week has been very fresh and comfortable, in fact, with a persistent fresh breeze taking the edge of the temp. Last night I felt cool in 26C temps (yes, really!) but very dry, low DP air and that breeze.

My threshold for 'comfortable' warmth and heat here is a little higher than the UK due to lower humidity, it's relatively comfortable up to about a 32C max. Hoping the 35C+ heat stays away, as it has done here thus far.

Slightly concerned about the latest GFS for late July, which suggests a cool and wet cyclonic NW-ly for the UK and the corresponding unusual heat for here (these two seem to often occur in unison; June 2019 was unusually hot here - I was here during that month - and unusually cool and wet in the UK). This is for 10 days time though (following a more transient spell of heat for next weekend) so presumably time to change.

Mean July max here is about 31 I think (33 in Thessaloniki but here we're at altitude and away from an urban area, which should knock 2 or 3 degrees off the mean max).

Edited July 15, 2022 by Summer8906

[Josh Romano]

July is also proving to be one of the hottest in Italy, similar to July 2003

[Summer8906]

Still in Greece, July has been not too extreme here up about Wednesday this week (thanks partly to a prolonged coolish spell last week) but after pleasant conditions on Wednesday, since yesterday we seem to have entered a regime of hot days and silly hot nights, the nights being more notable than the days. This is at an elevation of around 400m, in a fairly rural location, so it ought to be cooler than some other locations.

Preferred the earlier regime in late June/early July when distant Cbs would add a bit of interest, and the temps were more pleasant. Today has been kind of the opposite extreme to a dull, wet, cool July day back home.

What these Mediterranean regions need, in all honesty, is a wetter and cooler summer than average. And you'd never catch me making that remark about a UK summer!

Edited July 22, 2022 by Summer8906

[Josh Romano]

This very hot July continues, one of the hottest in peninsular Italy

[Josh Romano]

In the next few days we will have the data for July but I can anticipate that the period of June-July  2022 in peninsular Italy is the second or third hottest of the historical series.

Edited July 31, 2022 by Josh Romano

[Josh Romano]

July 2022 was the second hottest in the time series for peninsular Italy. 2022 is currently the hottest year in Italy.

Edited August 5, 2022 by Josh Romano

[Josh Romano]

After a few days of respite and some strong thunderstorms, from today the strong heat starts to hit peninsular Italy again

[Thunders]

On 05/08/2022 at 11:31, Josh Romano said:

July 2022 was the second hottest in the time series for peninsular Italy. 2022 is currently the hottest year in italy

Everywhere in Western Europe is hot, including Italy 

Edited August 20, 2022 by Thunders

[Josh Romano]

August 2022 is actually less hot than July, however southern Italy and the Balkan area are experiencing a remarkably hot month, while the northernmost areas have been spared more. However, summer 2022 in Italy is likely to be the second or third hottest in the time series.

[Josh Romano]

Today the strong heat has returned in southern Italy, in Sicily and in a part of central Italy.

[Josh Romano]

The summer of 2022 was officially the second hottest in Italy, after the summer of 2003. It is still very hot in the south

Yesterday 36 C in Catania Sigonella(Sicily)