There are 16 Italian cities in which the “Red sticker” for hot alert In Ferragosto 2025, all in the center-north and in particular in Lazio: Bologna, Bolzano, Brescia, Florence, Frosinone, Genoa, Latina, Milan, Perugia, Rieti, Rome, Turin, Trieste, Venice, Verona, Viterbo. But what is the “red sticker” and what exactly does it mean? It is a rather complex system that monitors 27 Italian cities, similar to that of the weather alerts produced by the Civil Protection but specific for the risks to human health due to the heatespecially during heat waves such as the one that is affecting Europe these days.
To determine the “stamps” – which are actually technically risk levels – is the Ministry of Health, which every summer coordinates the National prevention and alarm systemborn in 2004 and currently operational in 27 cities Regional capital and/or with at least 250,000 inhabitants: Ancona, Bari, Bologna, Bolzano, Brescia, Cagliari, Campobasso, Catania, Civitavecchia, Florence, Frosinone, Genoa, Latina, Messina, Milan, Naples, Palermo, Perugia, Pescara, Reggio Calabria, Rieti, Rome, Turin, Trieste, Venice, Verona, Viterbo.
This system is made by National competence center of the Civil Protection, which receives the data of the airport meteorological stations closest to the closest to the cities monitored and based on such data from the service of the Air Force daily Bulletins on heat waves specific for each city, in which the forecasts of real temperatures and perceived to 24, 48 and 72 hours are reported and the relative risk level calculated by the National competence center.
There are 4 risk levels, and each of them is associated with a “sticker”:
- Level 0 (“green sticker”): the weather conditions do not place any risk to the health of the population;
- level 1 (“yellow stamp”): it is a level of pre-alert in which there is a good probability that a heat wave is encountered;
- level 2 (“orange sticker”): the weather conditions can lead to a risk for the more susceptible populations of populations (elderly, small children, pregnant women, chronic sick people, non self -sufficient people, people who work outdoors etc.);
- Level 3 (“Red sticker”): Wave of heat lasting at least 3 days with risk of health effects of healthy people or who do not belong to susceptible groups.
On the website of the Ministry of Health are reported the advice to deal with the various levels of risk.
The bulletins are developed according to a forecasting and alarm system (Heat Health Warning Watch System) which estimates the impact on human health of the particular weather conditions of that city in the 72 hours of reference. Bulletins are specific to each cityin the sense that they are not all developed in the same way but take into account the specificities of each territory in terms of climatic trends and mortality. This is because, with the same weather conditions, Health effects can change according to the particular geographical context whether or not it may encourage exposure to risks due to high temperatures. In other words, the same real or perceived temperature can have different effects in Bolzano or Reggio Calabria, for example.
Once produced by the National competence Center, the bulletins are published by the Ministry of Health and sent to the Civil Protection and the Municipalities of reference, which deal with distributing them to healthcare facilities in the area.
