Italy is placing 25 of the 27 cities it monitors under the highest heat alert from Monday, the health ministry said on Saturday, as the latest heatwave of the season reaches the country. Only Reggio Calabria, at the toe of the peninsula, and Messina across the strait in Sicily are left off the list.
Temperatures were forecast to reach the high thirties on Monday. Rome, Milan and 17 other cities had already been placed on the top alert on Saturday, so the Monday map is an extension of a warning that is already in force rather than a new one.
The wording of the red level matters more than the colour. The ministry defines it as weather likely to harm the health of healthy and active people, and not only the groups usually listed as vulnerable: the elderly, very young children and people with chronic illness. It is the level at which a heatwave stops being a discomfort and becomes a public health event.
The heat reached Italy after crossing western and then central Europe over the preceding week, which is the pattern these events now follow. For city administrations the practical questions are the unglamorous ones: opening hours for public buildings with air conditioning, water points, and whether outdoor work is suspended in the middle of the day.