This summer in Italy, and across much of Europe, has been marked by a succession of long, oppressive heatwaves with little respite in between.

After a week of temperatures sitting around seasonal averages, a new heatwave is building over Italy again from Wednesday with the centre-north set to feel the brunt of it once again.

The “core” of the incoming anticyclone in the coming days would “sit between France and northern Italy,” meteorologist Lorenzo Tedici from weather website ilMeteo.it said in a report published on Wednesday morning.

“Temperatures will start climbing in the next few hours, with the mercury reaching 37C in Terni and 36C in Rome, Naples and Florence.”

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Ten cities and provincial capitals were on the ministry’s second-highest orange alert on Wednesday, including Bolzano, Florence, Rome, Turin and Perugia.

Only Campobasso in Molise was under its maximum red alert on Wednesday.

The heat was forecast to intensify on Thursday, when Perugia and Rieti are expected to join Campobasso on red alert and the number of cities on orange alert climbs to 16, among them Bologna, Milan, Naples and Venice.

Temperatures of 41C were forecast in Florence and Terni by the end of the week, with a cluster of Po Valley cities including Modena, Parma and Reggio Emilia close behind at around 40C,iLMeteo.it said.

Rome was forecast to hit 39-40C and Milan 38-39C.

The anticyclone was moving up from the south-west and was forecast to reach Spain and southern France before arriving on the Italian peninsula, atmospheric physicist Lorenzo Giovannini, of the University of Trento, told Ansa.

“Temperatures will be high almost everywhere in Italy, but will deviate most from seasonal averages in the centre-north,” he said.

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This was the fourth heatwave to hit Italy since the end of May, he confirmed.

“They have followed one another almost without a break: the intervals have been very brief,” Giovannini said.

“We are well above the average of past years, including in terms of temperatures."

Estimates for the end date have already moved several times, from August 9th to the 12th and 13th, Tedici said.

He predicted that there was a good chance the heat would persist until Ferragosto, the August 15th holiday, or even beyond.

From the end of this week, he said people in Italy could expect “nothing but the unchallenged rule of sun and record heat.”

Several Italian regions remained on high alert for more wildfires as the heat intensified, with Rome and the surrounding areas already hit harder than usual in July.