Headline

All-time record heat envelops southeast Europe

 Italy

A car tire lies on a dry sandbank near the Po River near the Ponte della Becca bridge in Linarolo, near Pavia, northern Italy, on Tuesday, August 1, 2017. Italy is in the grip of its worst drought in decades. Photo: Marco Bertorello, AFP, Getty Images

An already-hot summer has kicked into overdrive over a large swath of southeast Europe, where one of the worst droughts in decades has taken hold this summer. Temperatures again soared above 100°F on Thursday across large sections of drought-ravaged Italy. On Tuesday, the iconic city of Florence set an all-time high of 41.3°C (106.3°F), topping its record of 41.1°C (106.0°F) from 2003, according to Italy's Servizio Meteorologico. All-time records were also set on Tuesday in Perugia, L’Aquila, and Potenza, and on Wednesday in Campobasso.

Croatia’s second-largest city, Split, had the hottest day in its weather history on Wednesday. Split’s high of 42.3°C (108.1°F) handily broke the previous all-time high of 40.0°C (104°F) set on July 18, 2015. Croatia’s meteorological service, Crometeo, reported 10 other all-time highs set across the nation on Wednesday.