Spain flirts with record heat; 16 Italy cities on red alert

MADRID (AP) — Spain endured what it expected to be its hottest day of the year Saturday, with temperatures topping 45 degrees Celsius (113 F), while authorities in Italy expanded the number of cities on red alert for health risks to 16 as a heat wave engulfed Southern Europe.

In the southern Spanish province of Granada, where the mercury rose to 45.4 Celsius (113.7 C) by 4 p.m., few people ventured outside. Those who did sought shade and stopped to take photos of public thermometers displaying the rocketing temperatures.

Ice cream parlors did a brisk trade, and some restaurants installed sprinklers to spray mists of water over sweating guests.

Miriam García, a student, wished she hadn’t stepped outside.

“It is very hot, we have to drink water and put on suncream all the time, stopping to have a drink at a bar every so often,” she said. “It would be better to be at home than in the street, it’s so hot!”

Dominic Royé, a climate scientist at the University of Santiago de Compostela, said hot air from the Sahara Desert that has brought days of heat and fueled hundreds of wildfires across Mediterranean countries shows no signs of ending anytime soon.

“The heat wave we are experiencing now is very extreme and a lot of people are saying that it’s normal, as we are in summer. But it’s not, not this hot,” Roye said.

With night-time temperatures forecast to exceed 25 degrees Celsius (77 F) in much of Spain, Royé worried about residents who cannot afford air conditioning and other vulnerable people, like the homeless or outdoor workers.

“The more intense the heat, the higher the mortality risk,” he said. “When you have high night temperatures, our bodies are prevented from resting. The body is working and working to cool down. We have found a strong link between mortality and...