Currently — July 19, 2023: Mediterranean heat wave worsens plight for migrants

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The weather, currently.

Temperatures across the Mediterranean are reaching new all-time highs this week. The latest heat wave will peak on Wednesday, and there’s a chance that southern Sicily could top the all-time European record of 49°C (120°F).

While the headlines are focused on tourists, the real story is the added plight the heat wave is putting on human health and the environment, prompting ‘dramatic’ ecosystem changes and extra stressors for migrants.

Rome recorded the hottest temperature in its long history on Tuesday, 42.9°C (109.1°F). Tunisia reached 48.1°C (119°F) this week — along the dangerous migrant route from Africa to Europe.

The heat wave comes as the EU signed a new deal with Tunisia this week in an attempt to keep more migrants in Tunisia. According to UN data, about 11 children die every week crossing the Mediterranean from Tunisia to Italy. More than 27,000 people died or are missing over the past 10 years trying to get to Europe from Africa. Even more die in north Africa deserts after being abandoned by smugglers with little food or water.

Water temperatures in the Mediterranean Sea are at all-time highs, peaking at 30.4°C (86.7°F) off the coast of Italy, a temperature more typical of the Caribbean, about 20 degrees latitude to the south. All that warm weather is surging humidity across the region, and leaving overnight heat index values in the upper 30s Celsius (90s Fahrenheit) — hot enough to cause deadly heat stroke.

This is what climate change looks like, when so many people seeking a better life are subjected to the violence and injustice of rising temperatures — whether in the Mediterranean or the Rio Grande or in the Himalayas. American poet Amanda Gorman has a new poem this week in the New York Times commemorating the Mediterranean migrants’ plight.

—Eric Holthaus