The highest temperature ever recorded in Europe was provisionally registered on 11th August. The town of Syracuse on the Italian island of Sicily reached 48.8°C, 0.8°C higher than the previous European record.
The previous record for Europe, according to the World Meteorological Organization, is 48°C in Athens in 1977. The new record has to be validated by the WMO before it becomes official, which means checking that the local weather station is accurate and correctly set up.
If this is accepted by the World Meteorological Organisation it will break the previous European record of 48C (118.4F) set in Athens in 1977. The temperature was measured at a monitoring station in Syracuse, Sicily, and confirmed soon after by the island’s meteorological authorities.
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