Charon, heat, mugginess and drought: what the meteorologist says

The heat will still persist in Italy, thunderstorms, but not decisive, are expected in the western Alps, but very limited and will not bring great refreshment. Summers so hot, with temperatures reaching even 40 degrees, are now a consolidated trend. According to reports to Adnkronos by meteorologist Antonio Sanò of IlMeteo.it, “the situation this week, as in the next two weeks, is one of summer heat because yet another African anticyclone is expanding, baptized ‘Charon’, which is now characterizing this first part of the summer “. Read also “In fact, in recent years this anticyclone has played the lion’s share – added Sanò – contrary to what normally happened with the Azores anticyclone, oceanic, which brings less intense heat. In the last 20 years, the African one has prevailed. and this is already an exception, what previously happened a few days a year is now almost the norm. For the next few days, therefore, the situation will not improve, perhaps there will be thunderstorms in the mountains, in the western Alps, and in Friuli, but they will not sufficient to relieve the heat and the humidity, since they will bring little coolness to the area and will not solve the drought problem in any way “. “As for Saturday and Sunday, 35-36 degrees are expected almost everywhere, the situation is blocked, the heat peak is expected between Wednesday and Thursday with almost 40 degrees both in the south, the area of ​​Puglia between Bari and Foggia, 38 degrees in many areas of Calabria and Sicily, 36 in Rome and Florence, 37 in Bologna. – continues Sanò – But there is an area of ​​the Po Valley, between Lombardy, Veneto and Emilia then the provinces of Rovigo, Ferrara and Mantua the area of the plain where it will reach 40 degrees around Thursday. This is an exceptional event not only for the month of June, but also for the whole summer “. “It is not possible to make detailed long-term forecasts. But there are elements: first of all, updated seasonal forecasts are drawn up each year which this year had highlighted the possibility of a warmer than normal season and this did not surprise us because it is now a consolidated trend of the last 20 years to have summers warmer than the previous ones. – Sanò specifies – Usually a comparison is made with the previous 30 years and averaged: this summer, most likely it will be warmer than the average of the last thirty years because there is a growing trend and so every year and therefore seasonal forecasts that are also based on statistical methods always tell us that summer this year will be hotter than normal and now it is a consolidated trend “. “What is most worrying about this situation is that it started very early and there are no signs of subsidence, and is even increasing. It should be noted that with the passing of the days there is still a natural, physiological overheating of both the soil and the of the waters surrounding Italy – concludes Sanò – so it is clear that the month of July and most of August will be hotter and muggy because there has been an overheating of the previous months. So, unless it arrives something unexpected, I would say a ‘miracle’, we have to endure this strong heat, with more or less violent phases, certainly we shouldn’t always expect 40 degrees, but over 30 degrees, 35 degrees, probably until mid-August “.