People in southern Europe have been warned a growing heat wave is set to get much worse in the coming days. 

Red alerts have been put in place in countries like Spain, Greece and Italy, with temperatures predicted to climb to 48 degrees Celsius. 

Temperatures already reached up to 40 degrees this week in the heatwave known as ‘Cerberus’, named by the Italian Meteorological Society after the mythical dog that guards the gate of hell. 

A second heatwave known as Charon - after the Ancient Greek 'ferryman of the dead' - is expected to cause “threat to life”. 

'Frightening'

UK Climate Intelligent Unit Spokesperson Gareth Redmond-King the weather is reaching “frightening” highs. 

“There’s a reason the Italian meteorologists have given these heatwaves names associated with hell, because these are very dangerous temperatures,” he said. 

“We did see 61,000 deaths last year in Europe as a result of the heat.” 

Heat-related deaths

Mr Redmond King was referencing a study published in the Journal Nature, which estimated that 35 European countries suffered 61,672 heat-related deaths between May 20th and September 4th, 2022.

The study examined the excess deaths published in the Eurostat mortality database and used epidemiological models to estimate how many of them could be directly related to heat.

This process saw the researchers matching recent historical temperature trends in different regions of Europe with mortality trends over the same period, to establish numerical relationships between deaths and temperature swings in those areas.

They found that excess death rates always rise and fall alongside extreme temperatures.

With a 95% confidence interval, the researchers then estimated that 61,672 of the over 70,000 excess deaths recorded in the 35 countries were heat-related.

The study notes that Italy suffered the highest number of heat-attributable deaths at 18,010, followed by Spain, with 11,324 deaths, and Germany, with 8,173.

Tourists at the Roman Colosseum shelters under umbrellas from the hot sun, 15/07/2023. Image: amer ghazzal / Alamy Stock Photo

Mr Redmond-King said the world may have to get used to naturally higher temperatures as the planet continues to warm. 

“Even if we managed to keep that heating to 1.5 degrees... we do still need to adapt to these higher more intense heats that come along more frequently,” he said. 

Body temperature

Authorities in Italy, Cyprus and Greece are advising everyone to avoid midday heat and watch out for risks of forest fires. 

Dr Chloe Brimicombe pressure built over North Africa is now sweeping across Europe. 

“North Africa could perhaps see 50 Celsius so it's just unbelievable temperatures,” she said. 

“I also think about our body temperature being 37 [degrees] and anything more than that is not good.” 

Additional reporting by IRN.