Italy has been given red extreme heat warnings for 16 cities throughout the country, as it experienced the hottest day of the current heatwave on Friday.
Milan (Northern Italy) is expected to be the worst hit, with temperatures reaching 40 degrees celsius, while Rome and Bologna are hovering at 39 degrees.
Florence, Genoa, Turin and Verona are other major cities under a cautionary heatwave red alert for the weekend, issued by Italy’s health ministry.
According to the national weather website ilmeteo.com, temperatures have been at least two or three degrees above the seasonal average since May.
In addition to the heatwave, there have been hundreds of fires across Italy in recent weeks, the largest in central Tuscany where 860 hectares had burned since Monday.
Some, 87 firefighters were on the ground after another night spent battling the flames, helped by reinforcements from the Lombardy and Piedmont regions. Water dumps from helicopters were underway, authorities said.
Prosecutors in Lucca have opened an investigation over the cause of the fire.
