Bologna, August 29, 2026 – The via Emilia cuts the Emilia-Romagna region in two, from Piacenza to Rimini. On Saturday, it does so also on the weather front: temperatures with highs of 33 degrees on the Emilian side and the Apennines, humid peaks of 35 degrees from Bologna to the Coast. An unrelenting African heat at the doorstep of September, which should mark the end of summer and the beginning of autumn.
But the hottest day was certainly August 28, with humidity through the roof and temperatures exceeding 37 degrees in the historic centers throughout the region, especially in Emilia. On Saturday afternoon, the values are still high, although compared to Friday the 28th there is a general reduction in several locations. The highest temperature reached is in Bologna, where at 4 PM the thermometer marked 35 degrees, compared to 37 at the same time the previous day.
Romagna (and Ferrara) recorded 34 degrees. In Reggio Emilia 33 degrees were recorded while Modena reached 34 degrees. The temperature was lower in Piacenza, with 31 degrees. The drop compared to yesterday mostly concerns the Emilian provinces: Modena and Reggio Emilia recorded 37 degrees on Friday, against 33-34 degrees on Saturday.
Also slightly down is Bologna, with a decrease in the maximum peaks by 2 degrees, from 37 to 35 degrees on Saturday. In Romagna, what changed compared to yesterday is the humidity, while temperatures remain stable around 34 degrees.
Here the level of humidity between yesterday and today remained very high, with peaks exceeding 90-95% during the night and morning hours and the ‘dew point’ – the ‘dew point’, which indicates how much water in vapor form is present in the air – exceeded 28 degrees.
A deadly mix that made the perceived temperature soar to over 49 degrees.
Also high minimum temperatures: 30 degrees along the coast
These are the minimum temperatures recorded last night in the Rimini area, between the plain and the coast, reported by Roberto Nanni, meteorologist: “Night values between 28.2 and 28.9 degrees – he explains -. Exceptional numbers, definitely higher than the normal minimum temperature values for the third decade of August.”
But the most impressive data concerns the night itself: “In several locations, even along the coast, temperatures remained around 30 degrees until about 3:30 AM. For the Rimini City station the comparison would be even sharper: the previous record for the highest minimum temperature in the Arpae series should be 26.8 degrees, recorded on August 27, 2023, against 26.4 degrees in 1998,” Nanni continues. If the currently recorded values remain definitive, some stations in the Rimini area could therefore set new absolute records for the highest minimum temperature ever recorded. “An anomaly that, moreover, does not only concern the Rimini area, but affects much of Romagna,” he adds.
Desert dust intrusion from the Sahara to Monte Cimone
A significant episode of atmospheric particulate transport has been observed since the very early morning of yesterday and is still ongoing at the Ottavio Vittori Climate Observatory of Monte Cimone, the CNR-ISAC research station located at 2165 meters altitude, in the northern Apennines. Measurements taken directly in the atmosphere show, starting from the early hours of August 27, a strong and rapid increase in the concentration of coarse particles, attributable to Saharan dust. The transport is also evident to the naked eye if we compare the images from the Observatory’s webcam, taken at the same time on two consecutive days: they show the transition from good visibility conditions on August 26 to a heavily veiled atmosphere on August 27, with a marked reduction in visibility.
The warm sea
In the Sacca di Scardovari (Rovigo) the water temperature reached 32 degrees (around 27 degrees in the Romagna Riviera), the record heat caused a sudden die-off of about a thousand quintals of mussels right in the middle of the commercial season.
The Polesine Fishermen’s Cooperative Consortium was forced to officially suspend the sale of the PDO product farmed in the lagoon, limiting production only to sea farms. “We are very worried but this time it is not only the lagoon that is suffering but the open sea as well. We are working for the recognition of the natural disaster,” comments Vadis Paesanti, vice president of Confcooperative Agroalimentare and Fishing of Emilia Romagna.
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