It's so hot in Floridia, Sicily that snails are burning in their shells

Man cools off under water fountain.
(Image credit: GIOVANNI ISOLINO/AFP via Getty Images)

It was so hot in the small Sicilian town of Floridia this week that the snails for which the region is known began burning in their shells, The New York Times reports.

Temperatures may have reached a sweltering 124 degrees on Wednesday, as a blistering heat wave that's been ravaging Italy and the surrounding areas for weeks hit its climax, writes the Times. As a result, snails were cooked inside their shells, unable to move as their feet burned to the hot ground. Meanwhile, lemons, farmed by field laborers, began quickly rotting, as orange trees sizzled in the heat.

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If and when the number is validated by international officials, Floridia's 124-degree peak would become "possibly the highest temperature ever recorded in Europe," the Times writes. Such frightening heat — punctuated by extreme weather events in both Greece and the Pacific Northwest — serves as an omen of what's to come for Italy and the Mediterranean, as well as a stark reminder of the ongoing threat from climate change.

"Floridia is now the center of the world when it comes to the climate," said the town's mayor, Marco Carianni. However, "when you take the broad view," added agriculture worker Viviana Pappalardo, "Europe is dying." Read more at The New York Times.

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Brigid Kennedy

Brigid Kennedy worked at The Week from 2021 to 2023 as a staff writer, junior editor and then story editor, with an interest in U.S. politics, the economy and the music industry.