Authorities in Italy say the island of Sicily may have set an all-time heat record for Europe, hitting a temperature of 48.8 degrees Celsius.

The city of Siracusa hit the blistering record on Wednesday afternoon, as an anticyclone — which Italian media reports are referring to as “Lucifer” — swept in and continues to moves north up the country. A persistent heat wave around the Mediterranean in Europe and North Africa has contributed to some of the worst fires seen there in years.

The hottest temperature ever recorded in Europe was 48.0°C (118°F) in Athens, Greece in 1977, according to the World Meteorological Organization (WMO).

The record in Italy was confirmed by Sicilian authorities, but needs to be officially verified by the WMO.

“At the moment there are no reasons to invalidate it, but if possible we will make an ex-post evaluation on the accuracy of the measure” said the Sicilian Agrometeorological Information Service, Sicily's official weather station operator.

An anticyclone is a high-pressure system, where atmospheric pressure is relatively higher than the air surrounding it.

In the Northern Hemisphere, they turn clockwise, while they turn the other direction in the southern hemisphere.

Some of the fires have been started by arsonists, but scientists say it's the climate crisis that is making heat waves and fires more frequent and intense, and therefore more destructive.

An authoritative report by the UN's International Panel on Climate Change published Monday said that 38 weather conditions that promote wildfires have become more probable in southern Europe over the last century. Globally, the heat waves and droughts worsening fires have increased too.

Temperatures around the Mediterranean have been 5 to 10 degrees C higher than average this week, and dozen of people have died in wildfires tearing across southern Europe and North Africa, most of them in Algeria, where 65 people have been killed. Deaths have been record in Turkey as well. Parts of Italy and Greece have also been badly hit by fires, where some villages have been largely destroyed.

Sicily is the largest island in the Mediterranean and is sometimes referred to as the “toe” of Italy, a country that is shaped like a boot.