Apocalisse4800 arrives, the Record anticyclone; effects on Italy also for the whole of next week »ILMETEO.it

Apocalypse4800 is coming, a new wave of African heatSomething big is boiling in the pot: da Friday 15 theAfrican anticyclone Apocalypse4800a high pressure from record which will affect a large part of Europe, with direct effects on Italy also for the whole of next week.

Its name is certainly not accidental and refers to a very specific altitude: the 4810 meters of Mont Blanc, the roof of Europe, which will also be the height that will reach thermal zero.
First a necessary premise. The height of the zero thermal is nothing more than the altitude (expressed in meters) at which the temperature of the air in the free atmosphere (therefore not influenced by the ground) passes from positive to negative values. The freezing point is obtained from the thermal profile of the atmosphere measured by the radiosondes, a sort of balloon that is launched into the atmosphere every day in the main Italian and international airports. Knowing that the temperature in the troposphere (the troposphere is the area of ​​the atmosphere where all meteorological phenomena occur) it decreases as we go upwards we can identify the point of thermal zero at the “moment” in which the temperature meets 0 ° C and as it rises further it always remains below zero. Even in summer this altitude usually fluctuates around 3200/3500 meters. Above, it is always cold: it is the altitude of perennial snows and glaciers.
Well, until about 10/15 years ago, climbing over 4000 meters was considered a very rare event and in any case of short duration (maximum one or two days), which is why the “damages” have always been limited.
However, something has broken at an atmospheric and climatic level: so much so that in the last 5 summers the average level has moved above 4000 meters: therefore from a rare fact it has become almost normal.

This trend will be confirmed in the coming days:yet another heat wave triggered by the African anticyclone will cause a rise in zero thermal at stellar altitudes, over 4800 meters as we can see from the attached map.
In simpler words, on Friday 15 July it will not even freeze on the roof of Europe. The exceptionality of the incoming heat wave is precisely this, not so much the temperature peaks we will reach, not so much the duration in days. This explains the name of the anticyclone, linked to the record of the atmospheric event.
This fact, of course, has some impact in particular on the world of high altitude, where alpine glaciers are found. As unfortunately the recent news has highlighted (the Marmolada tragedy), the increase in temperatures is destabilizing this delicate environment: in addition to the regression of the glacial fronts (about 40% of the glaciers have already disappeared compared to 50 years ago) , now the concern of experts shifts to the possibility of new collapses. We are losing one fundamental and precious water resource (all the more essential in these drought periods) which feeds our rivers as well as representing a wonder of nature.

The great heat will then continue for the whole of next week indeed, we expect a further pulsation of the African anticyclone. Everything is due to a particular synoptic structure (called in technical term “Omega block”) which will draw on hemispheric chatter: in particular, the deepening of an Atlantic cyclone on the western sector of Europe will trigger in response a blaze of boiling air towards Europe.
It will be a new climatic phase anomalous: if this trend were to be confirmed, we expect maximum peaks even up to around 38/40 ° C (and locally even higher) starting from Wednesday 20 July and for the rest of the week. Favorite for this great heat will be the Northern plains, the Tyrrhenian sectors of Tuscany And Lazio and the two major islands.

These weather conditions could accompany us almost to the end of the month, in a sort of anticyclonic block with high pressure well planted in central and southern Europe.
Zero temperature over 4800 meters over a large part of Italy. Warm even on Mont Blanc