IDEAS THAT CHANGE THE WORLD
We keep talking about how hot it is these days—or rather, throughout this scorching summer of 2026. Needless to say, the heat is record-breaking. But that does not make it an isolated phenomenon. Quite the opposite: coming summers could get worse and worse, turning into an irreversible spiral of climate change.
Summer 2026: temperatures approaching 40 degrees and persistent heat
Temperatures recorded in Italy are reaching highs of 35–36 degrees Celsius, with peaks of up to 40 degrees. The real problem with this record-breaking summer is that it is not just a few isolated days or the “hottest week of the summer”. We have been enduring this for two months, and Italy and Europe as a whole are undoubtedly struggling to cope.
June and July 2026 were the hottest summer two-month period ever recorded in Western Europe, although July taken separately was not the hottest July on record—that title belongs to July 2006. That is precisely the problem: it is not simply extreme temperatures, but the heat’s grip persisting for far too long.
The record of 6 August 2026
Whenever we open our smartphones or turn on the television, all we hear and read are weather alerts issued by experts.
Italy’s Ministry of Health and Meteorological Service have established risk levels highlighted by the following colours: green (no risk), yellow (early warning), orange (heatwave), red (heat emergency). Orange indicates a risk only for the most vulnerable groups; red indicates a risk for the entire population.
Since this system was introduced in 2004, in response to the heat emergency of summer 2003, there had never been a situation like that of 6 August 2026.
On 6 August 2026, for the first time, all 27 Italian cities monitored by the Ministry of Health were marked with a red alert.
The fourth heatwave
High temperatures and successive heatwaves are giving us no respite. Indeed, the one we are experiencing right now is the fourth heatwave of summer 2026. It follows the previous three, which have occurred over the past two months almost without interruption.
This new heatwave is as extreme as the previous ones, with peaks of up to 40 degrees, and will remain with us at least until Ferragosto on 15 August. We may begin to notice improvements in the second half of the month.
Summer 2026: has it always been this hot?
One question keeps coming up this record-hot summer: has it always been this hot?
The answer, of course, is no. Or rather, we may not set a record for the “hottest month”, “hottest summer” or “hottest day”, but the problem, as we said, is how long the extreme heat lasts.
No, it has not always been this hot, although recent decades have seen very hot summers, as hot as this one or slightly less so. Yet several far more serious problems surround this summer’s extreme heat: climate change, melting glaciers and rising sea and ocean water temperatures.
Perhaps this is not the hottest summer ever—not yet—but we do know that the seas have never been this warm, and neither have the mountains.
The hottest summer ever
This summer’s scorching heat may remind some people of summer 2003. Yes, for now the record still belongs to that blazing summer 23 years ago.
The summer of 2003 held Europe in a grip of heat and humidity, an extreme event in terms of both temperature intensity and duration, from May to September. That summer, the heat caused 70,000 deaths in Europe, including around 20,000 in Italy.
Summer 2026 is not yet over, but if things continue this way, it is likely to take the grim record from the seemingly endless heatwave of 2003.
