Vita gazette – Sicily is on fire, with desert temperatures and the island surrounded by fires; many villages evacuated, airports and stretches of the highway closed, and the situation is devastating: a woman died. Firefighters at work in the provinces of Palermo and Messina. The climate is causing severe problems throughout Italy. In the north, devastating storms with hailstones the size of tennis balls; in the south, fires and blackouts in Sicily.

In the 24 hours between 24 and 25 July 2023, northern and southern Italy showed the two extreme faces of climate change. Our country split in two but lashed by climate change. If in the North, the damage caused by lousy weather is incalculable, in the South, the heat and intense sirocco winds favour the spread of devastating fires.

In recent days, Sicily and Calabria have been the two regions most affected by the fires. Now, however, the fires are also affecting Puglia and significant areas of Sicily. Catania airport is still closed after the fire that devastated it on 17 July, while Palermo airport, threatened by flames, reopened this morning but only for departing flights. In the capital of Etna, many residents find themselves, after several days, still without water or electricity. At the moment, there are at least 55 active fires throughout Sicily, including the provinces of Trapani, Enna and Messina.

Just around the Sicilian capital, the worst situation. The temperatures even exceeded 45°C, and the intense winds continue to fuel the fires. We work tirelessly to try to face the line of fire, and at the same time, mass evacuations have taken place to keep residents and tourists safe. Even if many spontaneously left their homes surrounded by flames in the middle of the night. And in San Martino delle Scale, a hamlet of Monreale, an 88-year-old woman died in a fire in her home, with firefighters unable to extinguish the fire in time.

Palermo: 47 degrees Celsius. Fueled by the sirocco wind and scorching temperatures, dozens of fires burned hectares of Mediterranean scrub, especially between Palermo and Catania.

A violent storm paralysed Milan, and Palermo was suffocated by record temperatures and by the fire of the mountain fires.

After days of repeated and violent storms over Lombardy, around 4 in the morning on 25 July, Milan was hit by another storm: the wind exceeded 100 kilometres per hour, uprooting hundreds of trees and uncovering several roofs.