A Heat Wave Named Cerberus Has Southern Europe In Its Jaws, Its Going To Get Worse In 2023

THEATRE, Greece Heat Wave  — Tourists in central Athens snuggled behind mist machines, while zoo animals in Madrid were fed fruit popsicles and chunks of frozen food as southern Europeans braced for a heat wave Thursday, with the European Union’s space agency issuing a severe weather warning.

Emergency preparations, including personnel changes, mobile alerts and increased forest fire patrols, were prepared or implemented in numerous nations as temperatures in parts of Mediterranean Europe were expected to exceed 45 degrees Celsius (113 degrees Fahrenheit) Friday and into the weekend.

To avoid the noon heat, the public sector and many businesses in Athens and other Greek cities adjusted their working hours, and air-conditioned facilities were opened.

“It’s like being in Africa,” Balint Jolan, a 24-year-old tourist from Hungary, told the Associated Press. “It’s not much hotter than it is at home right now, but it is difficult.”

To avoid the noon heat, the public sector and many businesses in Athens and other Greek cities adjusted their working hours, and air-conditioned facilities were opened.

Cerberus, the three-headed hound in Greek mythology who guarded the gates to the underworld, was named after the high-pressure system that crossed the Mediterranean from North Africa. The European Space Agency is keeping an eye on it.

“Italy, Spain, France, Germany, and Poland are all facing a major heat wave, with temperatures on the islands of Sicily and Sardinia expected to reach 48 degrees Celsius – potentially the hottest temperatures ever recorded in Europe,” the agency said Thursday.

According to Norwegian meteorologists, a record high temperature of 28.8 degrees Celsius (83.8 degrees Fahrenheit) was recorded in the Arctic on Thursday in Slettness Fyr on Norway’s northernmost tip. This breaks the previous record of 27.6 degrees Celsius (81.7 degrees Fahrenheit) set in July 1964.

On Monday, the World Meteorological Organisation said worldwide temperatures in early July were among the warmest on record.

SOURCE – (AP)