The heat wave “Cerveros”, as it has been named by the Italian meteorological service, is sweeping parts of southern Europe and north-west Africa, with a high probability of seeing record temperatures in the coming days, while forecasters warn that the heat wave “Charonto” is also expected, as it broadcasts the BBC.

Temperatures are expected to exceed 40 degrees Celsius in parts of Spain, France, Greece, Croatia and Turkey.

In Italy, temperatures could reach as high as 48.8C. A red alert has been issued in 10 cities, including Rome, Bologna and Florence.

On Tuesday, a man in his 40s died in northern Italy. Italian media reported that the 44-year-old worker was painting crossing lines in the town of Lodi, near Milan, before collapsing from the heat. He was taken to hospital where he later died.

“We are facing an unbearable heat wave,” Italian politician Nicola Fratogianni tweeted. “Perhaps it is the case that in the hottest hours all useful precautions are taken to avoid tragedies such as that which occurred today in Lodi.”

People are advised to drink at least two liters of water a day and avoid coffee and alcohol, which are dehydrating.

Several visitors to the country have already collapsed due to heatstroke, including a Briton outside the Colosseum in Rome.

Heatwave Cerberus – named by the Italian Meteorological Society after the three-headed monster that appears in Dante’s Inferno – is expected to bring extreme conditions in the coming days.

Spain has been battered for days with temperatures of up to 45C and overnight temperatures in much of the country did not drop below 25C. A satellite image captured by the Copernicus Sentinel mission revealed that land temperatures in the Extremadura region had reached 60 degrees on Tuesday.

The heat is likely to continue into the weekend in Prague, the Czech capital, where temperatures could reach 36C on Saturday, according to BBC Weather, well above the July average of 24C.

But as the Cerberus heat wave ends, Italian forecasters are warning that the next heat wave, named Charon after the boatman who delivered souls to the underworld, will raise the thermometer to 43 degrees in Rome and 47 degrees on the island of Sardinia.

Europe’s highest ever temperature of 48.8C was recorded near Syracuse on the Italian island of Sicily in August 2021.

More than 60,000 people died in Europe as a result of the heat last year. The fear is that this heat wave could cause many more deaths this summer. On the Spanish island of Mallorca, the health emergency hotline has had to deal with more than one case of heatstroke every day since May.

Experts say periods of extremely hot weather are becoming more frequent, a phenomenon experts interpret as normal due to climate change.

The European Center for Medium-Range Weather Forecasts reported that globally, this June was the warmest on record.