Ambulances stood on standby near tourist hotspots and regions issued fire warnings as experts warned that such heatwaves, intensified by climate change, would become more frequent.
In Italy, 21 cities across the length of the country were on high alert for extreme heat, including Milan, Naples, Venice, Florence, Rome and Catania.
Hospital emergency departments across Italy have reported an increase in heatstroke cases, according to Mario Guarino, vice president of the Italian Society of Emergency Medicine.
It is mainly elderly people, cancer patients or homeless people, presenting with dehydration, heat stroke, fatigue.”
Hospitals such as the Ospedale dei Colli in Naples have set up dedicated heatstroke pathways to speed access to vital treatments such as cold water immersion, Guarino said.
Bologna has set up seven “climate shelters” with air conditioning and drinking water, Florence has called on doctors to flag up the lonely and vulnerable, Ancona is delivering dehumidifiers to the needy, and Rome has offered free access to city swimming pools for those over 70.
French tourist Cedric Gerard, on holiday in the Portugese capital, said the heatwave was “particularly intense this year”.
Several areas in the southern half of Portugal, including Lisbon, are under a red warning until Monday night due to “persistently extremely high maximum temperature values”, said the Portuguese Institute for Sea and Atmosphere (IPMA).
Invasive species
“The heat waves in the Mediterranean region have become more frequent and more intense in recent years, with peaks of 37 degrees or even more in cities, where the urban heat island effect raises the temperatures even further,“ said Emanuela Piervitali, a researcher at the Italian Institute for Environmental Protection and Research (ISPRA).
The heat is also attracting invasive species, which are thriving in the more tropical climes.
The lionfish, silver-cheeked toadfish, dusky spinefoot and marbled spinefoot are beginning to appear in waters off southern Italy as the Mediterranean warms, it said.
“With this stifling heat, the temperature can exceed 40 degrees in some nests,“ said Allain Bougrain-Dubourg, president of the League for the Protection of Birds (LPO).
“We are taking in birds in difficulty everywhere; our seven care centres are saturated,“ he added.
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