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Tourists and residents warned to stay inside as deadly heat hits Europe during peak travel season

Published:Tuesday | July 18, 2023 | 3:04 PM
A pharmacy shop sign displays the outside temperature of 46 Celsius degrees (114.8 F) in downtown Rome, Tuesday, July 18, 2023. Temperatures in Italy are officially registered only by the Italian Air Force's weather service while high temperatures picked by private stations need to be verified by the World Meteorological Organization, which only Monday accepted a new temperature record for continental Europe of 48.8 Celsius degrees (119.8 F), measured in Sicily on Aug. 11, 2021. (AP Photo/Domenico Stinellis)

MILAN (AP) — Officials warned residents and tourists packing Mediterranean destinations on Tuesday to stay indoors during the hottest hours as the second heat wave in as many weeks hits the region and Greece, Spain, and Switzerland battled wildfires.

In Italy, civil protection workers monitored crowds for people in distress from the heat in central Rome, while Red Cross teams in Portugal took to social media to warn people not to leave pets or children in parked cars.

In Greece, volunteers handed out drinking water, and in Spain, they reminded people to protect themselves from breathing in smoke from fires.

“Heat waves are really an invisible killer,” Panu Saaristo, the emergency health team leader for the International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies, said during a Geneva briefing.

“We are experiencing hotter and hotter temperatures for longer stretches of time every single summer here in Europe.”

The new heat wave in several parts of southern Europe is expected to persist for days.

The United Nations weather agency said that temperatures in Europe, amplified by climate change, could break the 48.8-degree Celsius (119.8-degree Fahrenheit) record set in Sicily two years ago.

As concerns grew the extreme heat would cause a spike in deaths., civil protection volunteers distributed reusable water bottles at 28 popular spots in Rome.

Authorities also encouraged visitors and residents to take advantage of the Italian capital's distinctive public drinking fountains, hundreds of which are located in the city's historic centre alone.

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