Italy puts all 27 major cities on red alert as fourth heatwave peaks

Italy is to place all of its 27 major cities, from Trieste in the north to Palermo in the south, under the highest heat alert as the fourth heatwave to hit the country this summer intensifies, the Guardian reported. The move comes as temperatures in some areas edge close to 40C, straining infrastructure and public health systems across the peninsula.

For Piedmont, the red alert carries particular weight. Turin, the region's capital, is among the cities affected, and the alert arrives as the city's factories and offices contend with the compounding effects of heat on both workers and energy systems. The Po Valley's continental climate, normally marked by cold winters and warm summers, is being pushed into territory that infrastructure built for milder conditions was not designed to handle.

The Guardian noted that this is the fourth heatwave of the summer, a pattern that has become the new normal for Italian summers. For Piedmontese manufacturers, the repeated heat events mean more than discomfort: they strain the electricity grid at peak demand hours, raise the risk of production disruptions, and force companies to adjust shift patterns to protect workers from heat stress.