To spend a winter's day at the beach, there's no need to choose an exotic destination: going to Palermo is enough. On Monday 8 January, the temperature in the Sicilian capital reached 24.1 degrees, enough to trigger a fire alert. Thermometers recorded exceptional readings in several Italian cities: in Rome, the maximum was 19.6 degrees, while the minimum did not drop below 17 — the highest in the past twenty years. "A heat record also for the Naples Capodichino station, which at 22 degrees surpasses the previous record of 20.4 set in January 1997," reports the meteorology website 3Bmeteo.com.

What caused the temperature rise

The cause of the anomalous heat was a surge of mild, humid air coming from North Africa, accompanied by sirocco winds, which typically blow in spring and autumn but very rarely in winter. "The Trieste station also sets a new record, with its 18 degrees breaking the temperature recorded in January 1994 of 16.6," continues Carlo Migliore of 3Bmeteo.com.

2017 was one of the hottest years on record in Milan…

In Milan, the minimum temperature was 10.4 degrees. If 2018 has started like this, it should be noted that 2017 was the hottest year in the past 119 years in the Lombard capital, with an average temperature of 16.1 degrees and above-normal values for no fewer than 11 months. Rainfall, on the other hand, was very scarce: just 591 millimetres against an average that generally exceeds 900.

…And one of the driest in Italy

2017 was the driest year in the past 200 years and ranked sixth among the hottest since 1800, according to a survey by Coldiretti based on data from the National Research Council (Cnr), which has been recording temperatures for 217 years. At the same time, extreme weather events have increased. Italy is therefore not immune to the effects of climate change, which has had a heavy impact on agriculture and caused €14 billion worth of damage over the past ten years. If a break from winter is pleasant for us, let us remember that for our planet it is somewhat less so.