It starts today, it goes up again from Wednesday, with progression until Friday, when the mistral should break. And only then will the heat bubble that is about to envelop Sardinia, reinforced by a blanket of suspended Saharan dust, be broken.
The cause of the phenomena of the next few hours is an African anticyclone which is about to conquer almost all of Italy, causing temperatures to rise almost 10°C above the average for the period, recording peaks of 40°C, which could reach 42- 43 in some internal areas of the island.
In the meantime, according to the experts at Il Meteo.it today the good weather will prevail with clear skies in the Center-South and slightly cloudy in the North. In the next few days temperatures will become the absolute protagonists.
The escalation of the African heat will initially be gradual until tomorrow, with maximum values around 32-34°C in the Centre-North and higher than these in Puglia, Sicily and Sardinia.
From Wednesday and until Friday there will be further intensification of the heat. The hottest days appear to be those of Thursday the 20th (summer solstice) and Friday, when in the Centre-South the maximum values will reach peaks of 39-40°C as in Rome, Naples, Terni, Macerata, Florence, and in the North also in Forlì and Ferrara. Higher values (up to 42-44°C) will instead be recorded in the internal areas of Sardinia and Sicily.
As regards the duration of this African explosion, it would seem - according to the experts' forecasts - that as early as the weekend of 22-23 June the anticyclone could begin to lose power with the first very strong storms in the North and a general drop in temperatures in all regions. However, some rain could be recorded on the island as early as Wednesday, in the central-eastern sectors.
There is a glimmer of opportunity for change, assures the meteorologist from Cagliari, former Air Force and now of Meteonetwork, Alessandro Gallo, «due to the possible entry of a disturbance of Atlantic origin, with mistral winds and decreasing minimum and maximum temperatures».
