The climate is warming again with scorching heat and fist-sized hailstones

It was the warmest Wednesday last week in Sardinia, where a station measuring indoors touched 46.2 degrees briefly. In Catalonia, the local heat record was 45.1 degrees, a few tenths less From the media that was reported at the beginning, but it is still 1.3 degrees warmer than the previous Catalan record.

This is clear from Data from weather stations From southern Europe, a week later a meteorological scene in the Mediterranean Sea. Especially in Sardinia, Spain and the Italian mainland Dozens of domestic records and broken records. But also in France, Greece, Turkey, Croatia, Malta, Majorca, and Cyprus, different weather stations are louder than ever.

However, national records were not broken. Rome, for example, broke the city record of 42.9 degrees Celsius on Tuesday, but not yet the Italian – and European, too – heat record of 48.8 degrees. Southern Spain also stayed well below the national record of 47.6 with a 44.8 in Andéjar, which Founded two years ago. At the start of the week, meteorologists still think the European heat is the record may fall.

warm sea

The planet is likely experiencing its hottest month on record, NASA said Friday, with more or less simultaneous heat waves in Europe, North America and China. The sea heat is also exceptional: About 30 degrees in some places in the Mediterranean Seaand thus about four degrees warmer than normal for that time of year.

Meanwhile, especially in northern Italy, people have had to deal with another phenomenon exacerbated by climate change: extreme weather. More than a hundred people were injured Wednesday night through Thursday when a hailstorm with heavy thunderstorms passed through the area, mainly due to accidents and falling glass shards. And it hit again on Friday: a tornado was seen near Milan, and more hailstones over 10 centimeters fell to the west.

He noted that global warming makes the hailstones larger and increases the frequency of large hailstones. Recent research by the European Storm Center ESSL Outside. On Thursday and Friday, images of smashed cars, broken windows, damaged solar panels and the hands of surprised witnesses showing fist-sized hailstones circulated on social media.