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Central France on alert for more violent storms

Four departments in central France were placed on storm alert on Monday, as France braces itself for another week of extreme weather.

Central France on alert for more violent storms
More storms were predicted in the Lyon region on Monday. Photo: PASCAL POCHARD-CASABIANCA / AFP.

The Allier, Puy-de-Dôme, Loire and Rhône departments have been placed on orange alert, based on forecasts by Météo France. ‘Violent’ storms were expected to begin on Monday afternoon, with hailstorms, heavy rain and strong winds.

On Tuesday, June 22nd, three months’ worth of rain fell in one day in the northern town of Beauvais, leading to floods and collisions on the roads. While on Friday, June 18th, thousands of homes in south west France were without electricity after violent overnight storms after an early summer heatwave ended with a thunderous bang.

And after a brief respite there was more on the way – starting on Saturday as the 2021 Tour de France got under way in Brittany. 

Storms in the south west caused damage to trees and power lines on Sunday.

The Météo-France forecast for Monday evening. Image: Météo-France

Forecasters said the cause of this latest series of thunderstorms is a weather phenomenon known as a ‘cold drop’ – a mass of isolated cold air surrounded by areas of warmer air. 

As the animation from storm watchers Keraunos shows, that problematic mass of storm-causing cold air that has travelled from Britain is expected to bounce around France for several days.

The Météo-France forecast for Tuesday afternoon. Image: Météo-France

Temperatures will stick below normal for the season for most of the country, while forecasters expect storms to bubble up towards the end of the day from Monday until at least Thursday. 

Forecasters admit the scenario could change a bit depending on the behaviour of the cold drop, which may disappear faster than models predict. But the consensus of opinion is that we should expect rain and storms for a few days to come.

Storms are not unusual at this time of year – they are most common in France in June, July and August, with an average of 15 to 20 stormy days each summer. We will be at the lower end of that average by the end of next week.

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‘Città 30’: Which Italian cities will bring in new speed limits?

Bologna has faced heavy criticism - including from the Italian government - after introducing a speed limit of 30km/h, but it's not the only city to approve these rules.

'Città 30': Which Italian cities will bring in new speed limits?

Bologna on January 17th became Italy’s first major city to introduce a speed limit of 30km/h on 70 percent of roads in the city centre under its ‘Città 30’ plan, first announced in 2022, and initially set to come into force by June 2023.

The move made Bologna one of a growing number of European cities, including Paris, Madrid, Brussels, and Bilbao, to bring in a 30km/h limit aimed at improving air quality and road safety.

But the change was met last week with a go-slow protest by Bologna’s taxi drivers and, perhaps more surprisingly, criticism from the Italian transport ministry, which financed the measure.

Matteo Salvini, who is currently serving as Italy’s transport minister, this week pledged to bring in new nationwide rules dictating speed limits in cities that would reverse Bologna’s new rule.

Salvini’s League party has long criticised Bologna’s ‘Città 30’ plan, claiming it would make life harder for residents as well as people working in the city and would create “more traffic and fines”.

OPINION: Italians and their cars are inseparable – will this ever change?

Bologna’s speed limit has sparked a heated debate across Italy, despite the increasingly widespread adoption of such measures in many other cities in Europe and worldwide in recent years.

While Bologna is the biggest Italian city to bring in the measure, it’s not the first – and many more local authorities, including in Rome, are now looking to follow their example in the next few years.

Some 60 smaller cities and towns in Italy have adopted the measure so far, according to Sky TG24, though there is no complete list.

This compares to around 200 French towns and cities to adopt the rule, while in Spain the same limit has applied to 70 percent of all the country’s roads since since May 2021 under nationwide rules, reports LA7.

The first Italian town to experiment with a 30 km/h speed limit was Cesena, south of Bologna, which introduced it in 1998. Since then, the local authority has found that serious accidents have halved, while the number of non-serious ones has remained unchanged.

Olbia, in Sardinia, also famously introduced the speed limit in 2021.

The city of Parma is planning to bring in the same rules from 2024, while the Tuscan capital of Florence approved five 30km/h zones in the city centre earlier this month.

Turin is set to bring in its first 30km/h limits this year as part of its broader plan to improve transport infrastructure, aimed at reducing smog and increasing livability.

READ ALSO: Why electric cars aren’t more popular in Italy

Meanwhile, the mayor of Rome, Roberto Gualtieri, has promised to introduce the limit on 70 percent of the capital’s roads by the end of his mandate, which expires in 2026.

In Milan, while the city council has voted in favour of lower speed limits and other traffic limitations on central roads, it’s not clear when these could come into force.

Milan mayor Beppe Sala this week said a 30 km/h limit would be “impossible” to implement in the Lombardy capital.

And it’s notable that almost all of the cities looking at slowing down traffic are in the north or centre-north of Italy.

There has been little interest reported in the measures further south, where statistics have shown there are a higher number of serious road accidents – though the total number of accidents is in fact higher in the north.

According to the World Health Organisation the risk of death to a pedestrian hit by a car driven at 50 km/h is 80 percent. The risk drops to 10 percent at 30 km/h.

The speed limit on roads in Italian towns and cities is generally 50, and on the autostrade (motorways) it’s up to 130.

Many Italian residents are heavily dependent on cars as their primary mode of transport: Italy has the second-highest rate of car ownership in Europe, with 670 vehicles per 1,000 residents, second only to Luxembourg with 682, according to statistics agency Eurostat.

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