Floridia residents say extreme heat is reshaping daily life five years after European record
Residents of Floridia say increasingly frequent and prolonged heatwaves are keeping people indoors, reducing social interaction and threatening livelihoods.
Floridia, Italy. Five years after the nearby Sicilian district of Monasteri registered Europe’s highest-ever temperature, residents of Floridia say extreme heat is no longer defined by records but by its effect on daily life.
Increasingly frequent and prolonged heatwaves are keeping people indoors, emptying streets and piazzas, disrupting social traditions and threatening livelihoods.
Record temperature
On August 11, 2021, Sicily’s Agrometeorological Information Service (SIAS) measured 48.8 degrees Celsius, or 119.8 degrees Fahrenheit, in Monasteri, a rural district about 5 kilometres from Floridia’s centre.
In 2024, the World Meteorological Organization certified the reading as the highest temperature ever recorded in continental Europe. The record still stands.
The temperature turned Floridia, a town of 20,000 on the outskirts of Syracuse on Sicily’s southeastern coast, into a symbol of Europe’s warming climate as the continent emerged from COVID-19 restrictions.
Daily life affected
Residents had expected the 2021 record to be an isolated event, but hot summers have become the norm.
Piazza del Popolo, Floridia’s long-standing social hub, is nearly empty for much of the day. The square is lined with cafes, palm trees and municipal buildings.
The heat also continues into the evening, affecting the local tradition of “pigghiari u frescu”, when families place kitchen chairs outside their homes to catch the breeze and socialise.
“It’s awful because many people end up shut indoors. In a way, we are all experiencing another kind of lockdown,” Floridia culture councillor Serena Spada told Reuters.
“Even people with small children find themselves in this situation. Children cannot go to the park or play outside because, until late afternoon, temperatures are genuinely hostile.”
Residents’ concerns
Resident Ugo Tomasello said walking in the heat had left him struggling to breathe.
“As I walked, I began struggling to breathe and thought: ‘I could die here in the street, with no one around to help me’,” he said.
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