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CLIMATE CRISIS

Weather: Central and southern Italy on storm alert as temperatures drop

Many parts of Italy were on alert for severe storms on Thursday, with temperatures set to fall and more bad weather predicted across the country over the weekend.

Published: 1 September 2022 08:51 CEST
Weather: Central and southern Italy on storm alert as temperatures drop
Photo by Marco BERTORELLO / AFP

Temperatures are expected to fall by up to eight degrees in many parts of central and southern Italy as September begins with the weather taking a turn for the worse.

Violent thunderstorms will spread south from Emilia-Romagna on Thursday, the national civil protection department said.

Storms are forecast to hit early on Thursday in the regions of Emilia-Romagna, Tuscany, Marche, Abruzzo, Molise and Campania, and then spread to Puglia, Calabria, Basilicata, and northeastern Sicily.

There will be “intense downpours, frequent electrical activity, hailstorms and strong gusts of wind”, the department said.

“There will be very intense localised weather phenomena, especially along coastal areas,” it predicted.

Thunderstorms and colder temperatures are then expected in the centre-north of Italy over the weekend, according to forecasts from weather website Il Meteo.

Unstable weather is expected across the country for the next few days, as cold air masses move in from the Atlantic while the seas remain warm, meteorologists said.

Emergency services are bracing for further flooding and storm damage less than two weeks after a wave of extreme weather swept across northern parts of the country.

Experts say climate change is boosting the intensity and frequency of extreme weather events, such as heatwaves, floods, droughts and wildfires.

READ ALSO: Europe facing record year for wildfire destruction: EU

Italian environmental group Legambiente said in mid-August the number of such extreme weather events has surged in Italy, with 132 in the last six months alone – the highest average figure in the last decade.

“Italy is ever more subject to extreme climate events” because of global heating caused by human activity, the group said.

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WEATHER

IN PICTURES: ‘Exceptional’ Sahara dust cloud hits Europe

An "exceptional" dust cloud from the Sahara is choking parts of Europe, the continent's climate monitor said on Monday, causing poor air quality and coating windows and cars in grime.

Published: 8 April 2024 14:15 CEST
IN PICTURES: 'Exceptional' Sahara dust cloud hits Europe

Copernicus Atmosphere Monitoring Service said the latest plume, the third of its kind in recent weeks, was bringing hazy conditions to southern Europe and would sweep northward as far as Scandinavia.

Mark Parrington, senior scientist at Copernicus, said the latest event was related to a weather pattern that has brought warmer weather to parts of Europe in recent days.

“While it is not unusual for Saharan dust plumes to reach Europe, there has been an increase in the intensity and frequency of such episodes in recent years, which could be potentially attributed to changes in atmospheric circulation patterns,” he said.

This latest episode has caused air quality to deteriorate in several countries, Copernicus said.

The European Union’s safe threshold for concentrations of PM10 — coarser particles like sand and dust that that can irritate the nose and throat — has already been exceeded in some locations.

A picture taken on April 8, 2024 shows a rapeseed field under thick sand dust blown in from the Sahara, giving the sky a yellowish appearance near Daillens, western Switzerland. – An “exceptional” dust cloud from the Sahara is choking parts of Europe, the continent’s climate monitor said, causing poor air quality and coating windows and cars in grime. (Photo by Fabrice COFFRINI / AFP)

The worst affected was the Iberian Peninsula in Spain but lesser air pollution spikes were also recorded in parts of Switzerland, France and Germany.

READ ALSO:

Local authorities in southeastern and southern France announced that the air pollution threshold was breached on Saturday.

They advised residents to avoid intense physical activity, particularly those with heart or respiratory problems.

The dust outbreak was expected to reach Sweden, Finland and northwest Russia before ending on Tuesday with a shift in weather patterns, Copernicus said.

The Sahara emits between 60 and 200 million tonnes of fine dust every year, which can travel thousands of kilometres (miles), carried by winds and certain meteorological conditions.

The Spanish Canary Islands off the coast of northwest Africa saw just 12 days within a 90-day period from December to February where skies were free of Saharan dust, the local weather agency Aemet had reported.

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