These days of great heat have set a new Italian record for the second time in just two months. On the night between Sunday and Monday, the thermal zero (that is, the lowest altitude at which the air temperature reaches zero degrees in the free atmosphere) was reached at an altitude of 5,328 meters. The figure was recorded at the Novara Cameri radiosounding station. In the Alps, the average temperature zero in summer is at 3,800 meters. The figure surpassed the record for Switzerland, which, on the same night, recorded zero heat at 5,298 meters in Payerne, a new record since 1954, when measurements began in that country. This means that at the summit of Mont Blanc, at 4,810 meters, the ice was beginning to melt. The cause of this is to be found thousands of kilometers away, in the oceans, which, since the 1970s, have been experiencing a steady temperature increase of 0.11 degrees every decade and, in 2022, reached 21 degrees. These heat waves, the scientists explain, cause strong evaporation of the oceans, which affects the timing and intensity of rainfall, including in the Alps. High temperatures, even at high altitudes, prevent rain from turning into snow.
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