Heatwave to escalate again early next week. Record temperatures across Europe

The hot days will return at the beginning of next week in the west and south of the country, warns the director of the National Meteorology Administration (ANM). Elena Mateescu told Digi24 that the days with very high temperatures that meet the humidity will prompt strong storms, and these phenomena are expected to take place by the end of summer.

“The heat wave persisting for the past weeks will prevail at least until August 20-23. At the beginning of the week we expect the heat wave to intensify in the western and southern part of the country, with values ​​of over 37, 38 C. This warmer air mass accumulated during the day, near the high degree of humidity, determines the formation of high intensity storms at local level”, said the ANM director.

Today there is a code yellow warning of high thermal discomfort in forces in  Mehedinti, Dolj, Olt and Teleorman. According to meteorologists, in the south of Oltenia and in the southwest of Muntenia, the thermal discomfort will be high and locally it will be hot. The temperature-humidity index (ITU) will exceed the critical threshold of 80 units, and the maximum temperatures will be between 34 and 37 degrees.

The National Meteorological Administration also issued a yellow code warning of temporarily accentuated atmospheric instability, which will be in force on Thursday, between 13.00 – 23.00.

The counties of Argeş, Dâmboviţa, Prahova, Buzău, Braşov, Vrancea and Covasna are targeted.

Locally in the Southern and Curvature Carpathians, as well as in the north of Muntenia, there will be periods with accentuated atmospheric instability, which will be manifested by torrential showers, electric discharges, intense wind gusts, storms and hail. The water quantities will in some places exceed 25 – 40 l / sqm. Meteorologists say that such phenomena will be recorded in small areas and in the rest of the territory, with a higher probability in the evening in the center and south of Muntenia.

High intensity storms to persist by the summer end

The meteorologist also specified that extreme phenomena such as strong storms will be maintained until the end of the warm season, so that even in Romania the summer of 2021 will remain in the history of meteorological measurements as a summer of extremes.

“Such phenomena (storms, storms, hail – n.r.) will be of interest until the end of summer, so that the summer of 2021 will be a confirmation that Romania was also a summer of extreme weather”, concluded Elena Mateescu.

Heatwave persists in Europe as well

Firefighters continued to fight the fire in Sicily, where temperatures of 48.8 degrees Celsius were recorded, thus reaching the highest values ​​in Europe.

The meteorological agency stated on its Facebook page that they are the highest temperatures since 2002 and it is probably a European record, but the measurements still need to be analyzed.

The highest temperature on the European continent was 48 degrees Celsius and was recorded in Athens in 1977.

Italian firefighters battled wildfires in Sardinia, Sicily and Calabria, with the death toll rising to 3.

Meanwhile, the European media report that Spain and Portugal are preparing for a heat wave that has already wreaked havoc in southeastern Europe, especially in Greece, and is now heading for the Iberian Peninsula.

A heat wave fueled by the hot air in North Africa has already swept across the Mediterranean region, triggering wildfires in Italy, Turkey and Algeria, where dozens of people have lost their lives.

In Greece, entire forests, houses and farms were destroyed, and people were forced to flee from the fire.

The Prime Minister of Portugal warned that the hot weather increases the risk of vegetation fires that the country has faced before, in 2017 alone more than 100 people were killed.

The Spanish Meteorological Agency has announced that temperatures will exceed 44 degrees Celsius in some areas by Monday.