Rome, Jul 29 (IANS): Wildfires raging in southern Italy began to spread north as the country remained in the grips of bouts of record-setting severe weather.

Much of the southern island of Sicily had suffered from widespread wildfires in recent days, and on Friday similar blazes were reported to be spreading on the Italian mainland, in the southern regions of Calabria and Apulia.

On Friday, Apulia, the heel on Italy's boot-shaped peninsula, formally requested "emergency" status for the fires there, something that would give the region access to extra funds to confront the issue, Xinhua news agency reported.

All told, more than 50,000 hectares of land had gone up in flames since the start of the year, according to a report released on Friday by the environmental lobby group Legambiente.

The situation remained most critical in Sicily, where around 80 per cent of the scorched areas are located, the Legambiente report said.

The region has reportedly seen rolling blackouts in recent days as the electricity network struggled to keep up with increased demand for power, with parts of the system, including power lines, damaged by the record heat and fires.

Other parts of the island suffered from a lack of access to clean drinking water earlier in the week, though water supply returned to normal by late Friday, according to local media reports.

Earlier on Friday, Italy's President Sergio Mattarella toured a church near the Sicilian capital of Palermo after it had been severely damaged by fires. Mattarella called the damaged structure "an open wound" for the country.

Much of the northern part of Italy, meanwhile, was still being battered by intense thunderstorms. Six northern regions remained on emergency alert due to heavy rainfall, risk of flash floods, hail and falling trees, according to weather monitoring sites.

In an unexpected weather-related twist, the Marmolada ridge in the Dolomite Mountains in the Italian Alps saw a fresh coat of snow this week. Though temperatures have been higher than normal even at high altitudes, they remained beneath freezing above 3,000 metre (nearly 10,000 feet), and high humidity resulted in an unusual July snowfall this week.

During a prolonged heatwave in 2022, the Marmolada area earned worldwide headlines after a glacier collapsed, killing 11 mountaineers and injuring eight others.

Southern and central Italy, which experienced record-high temperatures last week, saw a slight decline in temperatures over the last several days, with daytime high temperatures dipping into the low 30s degrees Celsius.

At one point last week, 23 of Italy's 27 largest cities were under "red" alert, meaning there were health risks even for young and healthy individuals.

As of Friday, there were no cities left on "red" or "orange" alerts (an "orange" alert represents health risks for the elderly and those with health problems).

But one city, Perugia, is expected to ascend to that status on Saturday and nine more will be added on Sunday, including the capital Rome. The cooler weather pushed south by the thunderstorms in the north over the last few days will be displaced by another hot weather system from Africa, meteorological sites said.