 A heatwave has been testing the perseverance of many on mainland Europe this week, with Italy facing record-breaking temperatures as high as 50°C and land temperatures exceeding 60°C in Spain. Greece has seen 52 forest fires in just 24 hours as they also battle the unbearable Cerberus heatwave and it's bad news as a second, named Charon, is following on its tail, bringing yet more extreme conditions. The European Space Agency warned: 'Temperatures are expected to climb to 48°C on the islands of Sicily and Sardinia – potentially the hottest temperatures ever recorded in Europe.' But what's causing this extreme heat? Click here to read more of our live coverage of Europe's record-breaking Cerberus heatwave What is causing the Cerberus heatwave across Europe? There are different factors at play, but the biggest, according to scientists, is a high pressure system known as an anticyclone. This area of high pressure is trapped over the southern Mediterranean, in particularly over Spain. Temperatures across Europe are proving fatal in some cases (Picture: https://www.yourweather.co.uk/weather-maps/temp2m-europ.html ) This, combined with clouds of Saharan dust are making conditions worse. Another contributing factor is unusually high sea surface temperatures, which mean that cooler air is not blowing inland off the Mediterranean. Dr Melissa Lazenby, a lecturer in Climate Change at the University of Sussex, told the MailOnline that, though it 'is not possible to determine all the drivers and their exact contributions to the current heatwave in Europe' a full attribution study after will help pinpont the exact causes. She did agree, though, that the heatwave is largely 'being driven by stable atmospheric conditions from a stationary high pressures feature.' Is the Europe heatwave a sign of climate change? Experts also agree that climate change is undoubtedly a 'critical driver' behind this latest he){kind=link}
NEWS… BUT NOT AS YOU KNOW IT
A heatwave has been testing the perseverance of many on mainland Europe this week, with Italy facing record-breaking temperatures as high as 50°C and land temperatures exceeding 60°C in Spain.
Greece has seen 52 forest fires in just 24 hours as they also battle the unbearable Cerberus heatwave and it’s bad news as a second, named Charon, is following on its tail, bringing yet more extreme conditions.
The European Space Agency warned: ‘Temperatures are expected to climb to 48°C on the islands of Sicily and Sardinia – potentially the hottest temperatures ever recorded in Europe.’
But what’s causing this extreme heat?