ROME — Italy has recorded this year its hottest summer since 1950, with an average temperature of 24.3 degrees Celsius (75.7 degrees Fahrenheit), the National Research Council's Institute for BioEconomy said on Monday.
August was the hottest month of the year, with an average temperature of 25.6 C, up 5.2 C from the 1951-1980 average and 3.5 C above the 1991-2020 norm, according to the public body. The figures are based on readings taken two meters above ground level.
A man wipes sweat off his face on Aug. 19 in the Sicilian town of Floridia in Italy, where five years ago a temperature of 48.8 degrees Celsius, the highest temperature officially registered in continental Europe, was recorded.
"The average of 25.6 degrees Celsius recorded in August 2026 exceeds the previous records of 24.6 C in 2024 and 24.0 C reached in August 2017," CNR-IBE researcher Lorenzo Arcidiaco said.
Arcidiaco said the data pointed to 2026 ending as Italy's hottest year since the data he worked on was first collected in 1950, with July and August both ranking as the warmest on record.
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The CNR is Italy's largest public research institution.
People use umbrellas to shelter from the sun on Aug. 11 while visiting the Roman Forum, as temperatures near 40 degrees Celsius during a heat wave in Rome.
Large parts of Europe, the world's fastest-warming continent, endured sweltering summers, with drought and wildfires a growing problem. Britain had its hottest summer since records began.
The areas of Italy most affected were concentrated in northwestern lowlands and along the Apennines, many of them agricultural regions where higher temperatures and drought conditions put pressure on farming activity.
Separate analyses of weather data showed that major cities such as Rome, Florence and Turin were all hit by repeated heatwaves in June, July and August.
