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WEATHER

Weather: Italy braced for wet and chilly Labour Day

Traditional Labour Day picnics may be cancelled this year as nearly all Italian regions were expected to see rain showers and temperatures below season averages on Monday, May 1st.

Published: 30 April 2023 14:10 CEST
Tourists under rain in Rome
Most Italian regions will see some inclement weather on Labour Day, falling on Monday May 1st. Photo by Vincenzo PINTO / AFP

Those who were hoping to use the Labour Day holiday to enjoy some time outdoors – perhaps indulging in an open-air meal while basking in the sun at a local garden – may have to reconsider their plans.

The cold air front that reached Italy on Sunday was expected to keep its grip on the country on Monday, according to the latest forecasts.

READ ALSO: Parades, strikes and traffic: What to expect in Italy on May 1st 2023

Nearly all areas were expected to experience rain on Italy’s Festa del Lavoro, with Sardinia, Sicily and some parts of Calabria being the only regions likely to be spared from bad weather. 

Forecasts also indicated that rainfall may be particularly intense in the north-west of the country (Piedmont, Liguria and Lombardy) and in Emilia-Romagna, with both areas potentially seeing localised rain storms or even hail during the day.

READ ALSO: Seven things to do in Milan on a rainy day

Temperatures across the entire peninsula will generally sit well below season averages on Monday, with no major Italian city aside from Catanzaro, Calabria currently expected to see the mercury rise above 20C on the day. 

Daytime temperatures in most northern cities should hover between 13C and 16C, while some areas in the Alps may drop below the 10C mark.

Weather conditions should improve in the north by Tuesday, while showers may persist in some areas of the centre and south.   

A full return to sunny weather and balmy temperatures, however, was only forecast to come about between Wednesday and Thursday.

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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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