The just officially confirmed figure was recorded on the Italian island of Sicily on August 11, 2021.
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The World Meteorological Organization (WMO), the United Nations agency specializing in weather, climate and water, officially confirmed on Tuesday that a temperature of 48.8 degrees Celsius measured on the Italian island of Sicily on August 11, 2021, represents a new European temperature record.
This was revealed in an article in the International Journal of Climatology . The previous temperature record of 48.0 degrees was recorded in Athens and Eleusinus, Greece on July 10, 1977 .
This record was based on official Greek government sources and was included in the WMO’s Global Archive of Weather and Climate Extremes at its inception in 2007. However, there has been no independent verification by this UN agency.
An international team of atmospheric scientists verified the temperatures observed by an automated weather station in Syracuse, on the island of Sicily, on August 11, 2021. And the WMO confirmed that this 48.8 degrees is the new heat ceiling in Europe.
This WMO expert committee conducted an in-depth evaluation of available data and metadata, including independent analysis and calibration of the Syracuse sensor and associated data logger and sunshield.
ANALYSIS
The Sicily temperature sensor was sent to the Italian National Institute of Metrological Research for analysis . The action consisted in calibrating and evaluating the whole system (sensor, sunshield and data logger) in the same configuration in which it was recorded during the occurrence of the extreme temperature. The tests followed all WMO standards and recommended practices.
