MILAN – Wildfires prompted the closure of Palermo airport in Sicily on Tuesday, as harsh weather continued to hit Italy, causing damage and at least two deaths in the country’s north.
The airport in the Sicilian city would stay closed until 0900 GMT, according to its operator, as firefighters worked to put out a big fire in a nearby region, which also hampered local road and rail traffic.
The tragedy exacerbated Sicily’s travel woes at the height of the tourist season. Catania’s major airport, Italy’s fifth-largest, was closed last week due to a fire in a terminal building and has just reopened for a few flights.
Southern Europe has been slammed by a heat wave, with searing temperatures increasing the risk of flames and casualties.
Temperatures in certain regions of eastern Sicily reached 47.6 degrees Celsius (117.7 degrees Fahrenheit) on Monday, close to the island’s record European high of 48.8 degrees Celsius two years ago.
Because of the high temperatures, Italy issued a red alert for 16 towns on Tuesday. These include Palermo and Catania, where power and water supply outages have been regular in recent days, blaming the heat in part. Meanwhile, in Milan, an overnight storm ripped off roofs and uprooted trees, clogging roads and affecting overground transportation in Italy’s financial city.
Two ladies were murdered by fallen trees in the northern regions of Monza and Brescia on Monday and Tuesday.
On Monday, a Delta flight from Milan’s Malpensa airport to New York was severely damaged by hailstorm and forced to land in Rome.
Italy is one of the European countries most hit by climate change, and in May it experienced devastating floods.
Source: Reuters