Italy on red alert; Hottest May day recorded in Portugal

ROME: Italy issued a red alert warning for the capital Rome on Thursday and Portugal and France reported their hottest days in May, as Europe grapples with a heatwave that has broken records across the continent.Britain and France have already reported their hottest May days this week as the “heat dome” brought extreme temperatures not usually seen until midsummer across Western Europe.Several people have died in both Britain and France, mostly in drowning accidents, which authorities have linked to the extreme heat, while Portugal’s Health Minister Ana Paula Martins reported that the number of hospitalizations had increased due to the heatwave.The mercury reached 40.3C in Portugal’s central city of Mora on Wednesday, surpassing the previous record of 40C set in May 2001, the meteorological agency announced on Thursday, warning that there was a “high probability” the heatwave would last until early June.Italy has so far avoided record high temperatures but on Thursday authorities warned people in Rome and four northern cities to stay out of the sun.“We’re sweating a lot,” said Spanish tourist Nana Martínez García, who was trying to stay cool outside Rome’s Colosseum on Thursday in temperatures of 32C. “We’re drinking a lot of water so we can cool off,” she said, with her friend María Angeles Melinas Tello adding that they are “staying in the shade” whenever possible.The first red alert of the year in Italy – which also included Florence, Bologna, Brescia and Turin – warned of “potential negative effects on the health of healthy, active people”.Scientists say human-induced climate change is increasing such extremes, making weather events such as heat waves, droughts and floods more intense and frequent.tennis crisisThe extreme heat seemed to have passed in Britain, but much of France continued to heat up on Thursday.The temperature in the south-western city of Angoulême reached a maximum of 37.8C, breaking the May day temperature record set Monday and Tuesday, according to provisional data from Météo France in the evening.A school in the south-west was forced to close its doors on Thursday and Friday afternoons as temperatures in corridors reached 53C on Tuesday, causing pupils to fall ill, a local official said.“There was even someone who fainted and vomited,” said Florian Degas, an official in the Landes region.After record-breaking days in France on Monday and Tuesday, national weather service Meteo France said temperatures in Paris were expected to reach 34C and would remain on orange heatwave alert.Players are suffering from the heat at the French Open tennis tournament on the outskirts of Paris, with one player fainting after winning a grueling match that lasted hours.Italy’s Jannik Sinner, a strong favorite at the Roland Garros tournament, complained of dehydration, dizziness and nausea as he battled the heat following an unexpected second-round loss to rival Juan Manuel Cerundolo.Workers at the venue are spraying water on the red clay courts after every set and once the day’s matches are over, “we flood the courts with water, we soak them, so that the water can replenish the different layers that make up the clay”, said Philippe Vaillant, head maintenance worker.In Spain, national weather office Emet issued a heat warning for Friday for parts of the northeast and north, where temperatures were forecast to rise to 37C.The office said in a social media post that temperatures across Spain were “exceptionally high” for this time of year, compared to what is usually seen in summer. It predicted that temperatures would drop significantly over the next week.Back in Rome, American tourist Josh Renn said he has a game plan for the summer: “Get up early, work early, take lots of breaks. “Go sit in an air-conditioned restaurant, go to a museum, stay inside a little more during the hottest time of the day.”