It's not about being smug, put fucking European units in an article about European temperatures in a European location. Not everybody knows who or what Axios is, but we know what Europe and Sicily are.
Now there's a readable headline.
Of course, TFA lists the Celsius measurement in the first sentence, but who reads articles these days?
It’s only, as you say, “shit”, if you don’t like that America uses Fahrenheit. Or if you’re looking for a reason to “shit” on American press for using the Fahrenheit scale.