8/11/21: A monitoring station near the ancient city of Syracuse, on the island of Sicily, records a temperature of 119.84° F today. If that measurement stands it will be the hottest temperature ever in Europe.
“We are used to torrid
summers, but I have no memory of such an unbearable heat,” says Francesco
Italia, the mayor. “It is so humid that you just can’t be outside after a
certain hour.”
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Battling the blaze in Evia. |
The Greek island of Evia has also been baking under extreme heat (115° F). When a forest fire broke out it found plenty of fuel in the dried vegetation. Nearly 200 square miles went up in flames. Twenty villages had to be evacuated, with some islanders taking to their boats to escape. “We lived in paradise,” one shocked survivor explained to reporters. “Now it’s hell.”
Vasilis Vathrakoyiannis, spokesman for the Greek fire service, offered a grim assessment. “It’s not just Greece,” he warned, “It’s the whole European ecosystem.”
It’s climate change.
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