Extreme Weather in Italy
Italy has several types of extreme weather: heatwaves, droughts, flooding, severe thunderstorms, wildfires, hailstorms, waterspouts, ice storms, and the urban heat island effect. The type of extreme weather seems to be associated with particular regions and that is how I would like to address the topic in my blog this week.
To orient you, here is a map of Italy:
Northern Italy
As you can see from the satellite image above, the northern region of Italy is characterized by the Alps, the Po Valley, and the Apennines. It is a valley flanked by 2 mountainous regions. In the mountainous regions, the weather tends to be cold because of the high elevation.
Here is a snowfall map for today:
This region experiences hailstorms. The largest hailstone was 6.3 inches in Veneto and then a few days later that record was surpassed by a 7.5 inch hailstone in Friuli Venezia Giulia. Both of these hailstorms occured in July 2024. Economically, annual losses are in the multi-billion Euro range and tend to be 10 times the amount lost a decade earlier. Source
Severe thunderstorms also occur in Northern Italy. The highest number of lightning strikes in Europe were observed on Lake Como, which is near the Swiss border. Thunderstorms occur in the summer. It should be noted that other regions of the globe have much more frequent thunderstorms and lightning strikes. Source
Southern Italy and the island of Sicily
This region experiences heat waves, wildfires, and droughts.
The combination of heat waves and scirocco winds (Mediterranean winds that originate in the Sahara Desert) make wildfires common on the island of Sicily. The fire season peaks in June and 13 VIIRS fire alerts have been reported so far this year. One source attributes many of the fires to deforestation. Source
According to a UC Berkeley study, there was a different cause of the fires. The study suggests that 70% of the over 8,000 wildfires in Sicily in 2021 were arsons that were associated with the mafia. Source
Droughts are having a huge effect on some communities in Sicily. According to the Guardian, Sicily is experiencing the most serious water crisis in history. Residents of Troina occupied their reservoir’s distribution center at the end of November. This was a response to authorities requiring them to share their already very low water supply with neighboring towns. They have the Ancipa Dam and it is drying up. Residents are already filling up jugs at a local water hole so they have water. Source
Central Italy: Rome
Rome experiences Urban Heat Islands, as does Milan and Florence. These are areas in big cities which experience higher temperatures than the surrounding areas, and this is due to the amount of concrete, pavement, and buildings. Source
How does Italy warn the population of extreme weather?
Italy uses several different systems to warn of extreme weather.
Meteoalarm https://www.meteoalarm.org/en/live/region/IT Moderate, severe, and extreme weather of various types are on this site for most of Europe.
IT-Alert: The Italian Civil Protection Department (Dipartimento Protezione Civile) sends messages to italian citizens via their cellphones. https://www.protezionecivile.gov.it/en/approfondimento/it-alert-national-public-warning-system/
Other weather sites.
This was such an informative post! I really liked how you organized the different types of extreme weather by region, it made the information so much easier to follow. I had no idea Lake Como had the highest number of lightning strikes in Europe, that was fascinating. The part about wildfires in Sicily really stood out to as well.
ReplyDeleteThis post is very information packed which is a good thing to have. The information about all of the different types of extreme weather and the organization of it is very well thought out and put together nicely. I didn't have much of an idea about Italys extreme weather or that the country had so much weather since my country doesn't have much extreme weather so it's nice to learn about other countries weather phenomenons.
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