Highest European temperature record in Athens at 48 degrees in 1977
Sicily may have broken a new European temperature record, with the apparent recording of 48.8 degrees Celsius yesterday.
A weather station in Syracuse, a town in the region recorded the temperature, with Sicily's Agrometeorological Information System confirming the figure, but data has yet to be confirmed by the Italian Meteorological Service.
If verified it would be the highest ever temperature recorded in Europe.
48 degrees is currently, the highest temperature record in Europe, which was reported in Athens in 1977.
Reporter based in Rome, Paddy Agnew, says the heat is extreme in the rest of the country too:
Spain and Portugal are also engulfed with a heatwave.
Greece has been experiencing wildfires, which have burned for weeks - destroying villages including the one where Stavroula Tselkia lives:
