The deadly heat wave Kerberos has struck Italy.
Temperatures are expected to exceed 45 degrees in some parts of the country and so far one man has died.
“The Earth has a high fever and Italy is feeling it,” says Luca Mercalli, head of the Italian Metrological Society to CNN.
Kerberos is the three-headed dog monster that guards the gates of Hell in Dante’s Inferno. Now the dog’s jaws sweep over Italy, where a 44-year-old construction worker collapsed in the northern part of the country. The man died later on Tuesday in hospital.
– We are facing a wave of abnormal heat at unbearable levels, wrote the politician Nicola Fratoianni on Twitter.
In Rome have several tourists passed out after a heat stroke on Tuesday and early Wednesday.
Extreme heat in Rome is expected during Friday
During Friday, high temperatures are expected in central and southern Italy. In the capital, the heat can reach between 40 and 45 degrees.
Italy’s Ministry of Health has declared a red alert, which means the risk of death, for 27 cities in the country. Among others, the warning has been announced for the cities of Rome, Florence and Bologna.
The tourist-dense cities face the crisis by setting up cooling stations near attractions. There they will set up tents with fog, offer free water and health care workers.
The high temperatures that spread across Europe in string-like formations are due to a “heat dome” that is created when an area of high pressure stays over the same place for a long time. In Kerberos case the heat wave comes from the Sahara. The hot air then stops under the dome.
According to Sky News, the high pressure is expected to remain for the next few weeks.
Could break Europe’s heat record next week
During Friday, the monster Kerberos is replaced by the heat front Karon, the Greek character who shipped the dead from the gates of hell.
According to the Italian government, the heat record in Europe could be broken next week, which is currently topped by 48.8 degrees in Sicily in the summer of 2021.
The heat wave is not only hitting Italy. Spain, France and Germany are also affected. After Italy, Spain is most seriously affected. The national weather service AEMET warned on Wednesday that temperatures could rise to 44 degrees in parts of the country.