Boom of tropical nights: the Sardinian summer between scorching temperatures and sultry heat

Last July was the second hottest ever recorded globally: the average air temperature was 17 degrees, 0.68 more than the data for the thirty-year period 1991-2020. The figure (which includes statistics from both hemispheres), according to the European study center of Copernicus Climate Change Service, is slightly lower (-0.04 degrees) than the previous maximum recorded in July 2023. In short: we must face higher average temperatures. And summer periods with heat peaks never faced before.

If we narrow the field to the Island, last year's hot July remained for the "anomalies": those related to maximum temperatures exceeded 3 degrees and there were "frequent days with peaks well above 40 °C. The month, moreover, was exposed to heat waves of strong intensity that led to the highest maximum temperatures ever recorded in Sardinia: 48.2 °C", we read in a report by Arpas published a few days ago on Sardegnambiente.it. The heat now does not leave us even after sunset. The phenomenon of "tropical nights", that is, those in which the temperature never drops below 20 degrees, has now become a habit.

Then there is the humidity factor, which affects the perceived heat and is important in the world of livestock because it allows to estimate the stress conditions for the livestock. Here, «the period June-September 2023 was characterized by more critical values than average for all the months examined as a consequence in particular of the high summer temperatures».