Sicily records Europe’s ‘highest ever’ temperature as fires rage

Some scientists believe temperatures of 48.8C in Italy, as an anticyclone nicknamed ‘Lucifer’ sweeps in, are unprecedented.

Fires stoked by hot winds tore through southern Italy on Thursday, a day after a monitoring station in Floridia, Sicily reported temperatures of 48.8C (119.8F) – levels some scientists believe could be the highest in European history. Wednesday’s record temperature, which still needs to be verified by the World Meteorological Organization (WMO), was reported close to the city of Syracuse, in the southeast of the island of Sicily, as an anticyclone nicknamed “Lucifer” swept in. “If the data is validated, it could become the highest value ever recorded in Europe, beating the previous record of 48 degrees measured in Athens on July 10, 1977,” meteorologist Manuel Mazzoleni wrote on 3Bmeteo.com, a specialist website.