As Europe sizzles in almost 50C temperatures, when will the potentially deadly heatwave end?

Temperatures in Europe are set to climb even higher as the current heatwave gripping parts of the continent shows no signs of slowing down.

After days of sweating through Cerberus, people in southern Europe – with Greece, Italy and Spain bearing the brunt of the weather – have now begun to feel the effects of its equally scorching successor Charon.

And it’s expected to peak in Italy, where temperatures of up to 47C are expected to roast Sardinia on Wednesday.

The unprecedented weather has had a dramatic effect, with holidaymakers evacuated from resorts in the area surrounding Athens after wildfires broke out – made worse by a cooling wind that provided some respite for locals and visitors

With the school summer holidays coming up, many of us will be heading abroad for some summer sun – but the extreme temperatures may have left many concerned, some even going to the lengths of cancelling their trip to the affected countries.

If you have a European holiday planned will you face heatwave conditions? Or are cooler temperatures on the way to break the severe hot spell?

Here’s when the heatwave could end…

When will the European heatwave end?

If you’re travelling to Europe and hoping to avoid the worst of the hot weather, we’ve got some bad news for you – it looks set to continue for a while yet.

Reports have suggested the Charon heatwave – which has replaced the original Cerberus spell of hot weather – will stick around until at least the end of July.

Experts from the UN agency have suggested the hot weather could even last for weeks, saying: ‘A further continuation into August is likely.’

There may however be some respite for people in some parts of Spain and Italy – where things are about to become a little less stifling.

Ruben del Campo, a meteorologist from Spain’s national weather agency, said: ‘On Wednesday, we expect temperatures to fall overall with the arrival of cool winds from the north and east.’

‘But that is with the exception of the southeast and southern Andalusia, where hot winds blowing from the interior will cause temperatures to soar.’

Meanwhile the BBC reports that red alerts will be removed from some cities in the north of Italy on Thursday – although other regions will continue to experience soaring temperatures.

Sicily holds the record for Europe’s highest official temperature ever, after meteorologists measured 48.8C in the town of Floridia in August 2021 – and the World has said yesterday it is possible this record may be broken in the coming days.

Italian meteorological society president Luca Mercalli told the MailOnline: ‘Even if that record is not broken, we are seeing a heatwave the length of which is unprecedented.’

What is causing the heatwave across Europe?

There are a number of different factors fuelling the current spell of extreme weather – 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, over Spain in particular.

This – combined with clouds of Saharan dust – is 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 pinpoint the exact causes.

She did agree, though, that the heatwave is largely ‘being driven by stable atmospheric conditions from a stationary high pressures feature.’

However, climate change has also been cited as a factor – with experts warning that such heatwaves could become a regular occurrence unless rapid action is taken to ‘rapidly reduce emissions from fossil fuels’.

‘We can be in absolutely no doubt that a critical driver behind this warming trend is carbon dioxide emissions from the burning of fossil fuels,’ said Dr Leslie Mabon, lecturer in environmental systems at The Open University.

‘As we get to higher degrees of warming, the danger of feedback loops or unexpected events occurring becomes greater. This is why we need to urgently reduce emissions from fossil fuels and limit the extent of global heating at all costs.’ said Dr Mabon.

MORE : Maps show incredible cooling effects of trees during heatwaves around the UK

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