Blazes raging in Italy’s southern regions have ravaged mountain area of Calabria that is home to Unesco world heritage site.
The executive body of the worst-hit southwestern region of Calabria urged Rome to declare a state of emergency in the area.
The flames are threatening the primaeval beech forests, recognized by UNESCO as a World Heritage Site.
The Aspromonte National Park has called for national army units to be dispatched to help contain the fires.
Italy has witnessed a fierce heatwave stretching across the Mediterranean.
Fires have blazed across much of the region for more than a week.
Thus, Italy’s government has declared a state of emergency.
Trevor Mitchell, a meteorologist from the UK Metdesk, said: “The Società Meteorologica Italiana say that the temperature report of 48.8C is genuine.
“However, with potential records such as these, there is typically a process of verification before they can declare officially.”
Italy’s national fire service has reported more than 800 flare-ups last weekend.
Will climate change finally be taken seriously?
Many parts of the world have been on fire in the past few weeks, while experts have connected it to climate change.
Heatwaves, deadly floods and wildfires, this summer people confronted the link between extreme weather and climate change.
A UN-appointed panel of experts recently sounded a dire warning over climate change.
The UN climate panel said that the earth is getting so hot that in about a decade temperatures will probably rise past the most ambitious threshold set in the Paris accord.
With unprecedented fires tearing through Europe and North Africa, so some scientists
believe the reported 48.8 degrees celsius in Sicily could be the highest temperature in European history.
UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres described the report as a ‘code red’ for humanity.
World leaders to tackle the crisis at the COP26 Climate Change Conference in Glasgow in November.
