Trevor Smith Byrne Robotics Member

Joined: 21 September 2006 Location: Canada Posts: 3700
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| Posted: 24 August 2026 at 10:22am | IP Logged | 3
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Having just gotten back from vacation in Italy, and part of that in the south, I truly shudder at the thought of something more extreme than the surely record breaking heat I felt there this summer. Like, I lived in Istanbul in the summer of 2015, and Italy during the summer of 2016. I've been visiting that Mediterranean area most summers since '09, and I've never felt anything quite like this summer.A couple of examples from Lucca - I discovered a particular, not-for-everyone treat in my time there: salsiccia cruda (raw pork sausage, used as sandwich filler, crostini topper, etc) and for the first time in the time I've been travelling there, the place I usually get it told me they couldn't serve it because they couldn't guarantee that their refrigeration, due to the extreme heat, could keep it cold enough to ensure that it was safe to eat. Secondly, for the first time, I felt what I can only imagine was a sirocco blowing across the ocean from Africa - a wind that hit not simply without actually providing much relief, but that felt *hotter* than the surrounding air. Buffeted by a hot wind that felt like the blast that hits you when you open your oven door was certainly something. I don't even want to think about next summer being *worse*.
EDIT: upon some quick, further reading, it seems Europe isn't typically particularly impacted by El Nino. So this year's extreme heat and borderline drought is/was "just" regular old climate change. So....yay? I guess?
Edited by Trevor Smith on 24 August 2026 at 10:29am
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