By the end of the century the Mediterranean can expect to see summer heat waves hitting 50 degrees centigrade (122 degrees Fahrenheit) and prolonged periods of drought, climate expert Filippo Giorgi predicted on Tuesday.
Giorgi, the only Italian member of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC), made his predictions during an international seminar here in this Sicilian hilltop town on planetary emergencies.
"Simply speaking, the record hot summer of 2003 will become, over the coming decades, not the exception but the norm for a Mediterranean summer," Giorgi explained.
Although there are several scientific causes for this warming, "greenhouse gasses will play a major part," he added.
The current warming tRend is still reversible, the expert observed, but for this to happen "suitable measures must be adopted right now".
According to Giorgi, not only will summers in the coming decades become hotter all over Europe, but during the winter "storm systems will be pushed further north and central and northern Europe, including the Alps, can expect increased rainfall, frequent and intense, which will bring with it a greater risk of flooding".
Southern Europe, he added, "will see a progressive decline in precipitation also during the winter".
"However, the climatic changes taking place during the winter, while significant, will not have the same intensity as those during the summer," Giorgi concluded.
