by InTrieste
Average temperatures reached a record 24.3°C nationwide, while August posted the largest monthly heat anomaly ever measured.
Italy has experienced its hottest summer since national records began in 1950, according to new research released by the National Research Council (CNR), adding further evidence of the country’s accelerating warming trend.
The findings, produced by the CNR’s Institute for Bioeconomy (CNR-Ibe), are based on temperature data from the ERA5-Land climate dataset developed by the European Center for Medium-Range Weather Forecasts. Researchers found that the average air temperature across Italy during the summer of 2026 reached 24.3 degrees Celsius, surpassing the previous record of 23.6 degrees set during the exceptional heatwave summer of 2003.
August was the most extreme month. The national average temperature climbed to 25.6 degrees, making it the hottest August in the 76-year record. That figure was 5.2 degrees above the 1951–1980 August average and 3.5 degrees higher than the more recent 1991–2020 climate baseline.
Lorenzo Arcidiaco, a researcher at CNR-Ibe, said the August average exceeded the previous records of 24.6 degrees recorded in 2024 and 24.0 degrees in 2017. For the first time since records began, July and August ranked consecutively as the hottest versions of their respective months.
The broader picture points to an exceptionally warm year. Spring 2026 matched the highest seasonal average ever recorded, at 12.1 degrees, equaling the record set in 2024. Based on current data, Arcidiaco said 2026 is on course to become Italy’s hottest year since 1950.
The council reported that from January through August, about 70 percent of Italy’s territory experienced temperatures more than 1 degree above average, while roughly 40 percent recorded anomalies exceeding 2 degrees.
The prolonged heat has also taken a visible toll on the country’s mountain environment. Researchers reported record summer ice loss on the Marmolada Glacier in the Dolomites, highlighting the growing impact of rising temperatures on Italy’s Alpine glaciers.
