Brits jetting off for a spot of European summer sun should take heed as holiday hotspots on the continent are set to roast in temperatures up to the mid-40s.
At such highs, heat can cause a number of lethal changes to the human body. At 39-40C, the brain sends signals to the muscles telling them to slow down, causing the patient to suffer severe fatigue.
Just a couple of degrees hotter and heat exhaustion becomes likely. At 41C the body starts to shut down, with the upper lethal limit believed to be somewhere between 40 and 50C.
Italy is currently in the critical zone, with its first recorded death attributed to the deadly "Cerberus" heatwave, which is named after the three-headed dog of Ancient Greek myth and the hound guarding the lower circles of hell as detailed in Dante's Inferno.
The 44-year-old road worker was on the job when he collapsed in Lodi, southeast of Milan, amid reports of 45C heat. Two Italian brothers, six and seven, also indirectly fell victim to the extreme heat when they drowned in an irrigation basin after seeking a cooling sanctuary from the atmospheric oven in Manfredonia, on Italy's eastern coast.
And in Rome yesterday British tourists were spotted fainting under the sheer pressure of the searing sun. Concerned locals were seen dishing out water bottles in the hopes of alleviating the severity of the weather.
There appear to be no signs of the rolling heat slowing, with southern Spain bracing for a 44C high today, the same as is expected in Greece this week. The conditions are expected to last another two weeks, with Cyprus (41C), Croatia (39C) and France (34C) all to be affected.
Nine Italian cities, many of them popular tourist hotspots for British holidaymaker, have issued major weather warnings. They are Florence, Rome, Turin, Palermo, Bolzano, Frosinone, Perugia, Rieti and Viterbo.
The extreme weather is particularly concerning after last year's record heatwave killed more than 60,000 people across the continent. A study published on Monday in the Nature Medicine journal detailed how in 2022 when Europe saw its hottest summer on record, 61,672 people died as a result of the heat.
The study also discovered that more women (63 per cent) died than men, which was explained by the fact that there are more elderly women than men in the worst-affected countries.
In a statement shared with The Mirror, Met Office spokesman Grahame Madge explained: "The heatwave conditions which are affecting parts of southwest Europe and northwest Africa are expected to extend eastward eventually reaching the Middle East later in the week.
“Peak temperatures – which are around 10 to 15C higher than average - could reach the mid-40s degrees Celsius in parts of southern Europe and up to 50 degrees Celsius in parts of North Africa.
"Much higher than average temperatures are also likely at times further north across Europe, but these will be shorter lived and less impactful.
“Parts of Tunisia have seen record breaking temperatures that peaked at around 49 degrees Celsius. Communities in the affected regions should expect health impacts and the potential for wildfires.”
