Europe's news in English

COPY LINK

STORMS

Two dead after flooding and storms hit northern Italy

A 16-year-old girl on a camping trip was among two people who died after violent storms in northern Italy, Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni said on Tuesday, while wildfires raged in the south.

Published: 25 July 2023 14:33 CEST

Two dead after flooding and storms hit northern Italy

A resident walks past an uprooted tree by the Castello Sforzesco in Milan on Tuesday, July 25th, after storms hit the city overnight. (Photo by Piero CRUCIATTI / AFP)

The teenager was killed when a tree fell on her tent during a scout camp near Brescia, after high winds and torrential rain overnight.

On Monday, a woman died after also being hit by a falling tree in Lissone, north of Milan.

Meloni confirmed the two “tragic” deaths due to bad weather and offered her thoughts to their loved ones in posts on social media.

Milan residents reported torrential rain and hail in the early hours of Tuesday morning, which flooded streets and uprooted trees, many of which fell onto parked cars.

Transport authorities reported serious damage to the city’s electricity network, while an AFP journalist said water in the historic centre was temporarily shut off.

Firefighters said the situation in Milan was “very serious”, reporting more than 200 calls for help across the city since 4am.

Storms in Milan overnight felled trees and left parts of the city without water. (Photo by Piero CRUCIATTI / AFP)

But even as the north was drenched, the heatwave across the south persisted with temperatures of 47.6 degrees Celsius (117 degrees Fahrenheit) recorded in the eastern Sicilian city of Catania on Monday.

READ ALSO: Blackouts, water shortages, wildfires: How extreme heat is hitting Sicily

Firefighters on the island spent a night battling wildfires, one of which approached so close to Palermo airport that it shut down for several hours on Tuesday morning.

Italy’s Civil Protection Department on Tuesday reported “extensive fires” across the south, saying air support had been requested for nine incidents in Sicily, nine in Calabria and another in Sardinia.

“We are experiencing in Italy one of the most complicated days in recent decades — rainstorms, tornadoes and giant hail in the north, and scorching heat and devastating fires in the centre and south,” said Civil Protection Minister Nello Musumeci.

Writing on Facebook, he added: “The climate upheaval that has hit our country demands of us all… a change of attitude.”

Member comments

Log in here to leave a comment.

Become a Member to leave a comment.

'Extreme' climate blamed for world's worst wine harvest in 62 years

“Extreme environmental conditions” including droughts, fires and other problems with climate were mostly to blame for the drastic fall, said the International Organisation of Vine and Wine (OIV) that covers nearly 50 wine producing countries.

Australia and Italy suffered the worst, with 26 and 23 percent drops. Spain lost more than a fifth of its production. Harvests in Chile and South Africa were down by more than 10 percent.

The OIV said the global grape harvest was the worst since 1961, and worse even than its early estimates in November.

In further bad news for winemakers, customers drank three per cent less wine in 2023, the French-based intergovernmental body said.

Director John Barker highlighted “drought, extreme heat and fires, as well as heavy rain causing flooding and fungal diseases across major northern and southern hemisphere wine producing regions.”

Although he said climate problems were not solely to blame for the drastic fall, “the most important challenge that the sector faces is climate change.

“We know that the grapevine, as a long-lived plant cultivated in often vulnerable areas, is strongly affected by climate change,” he added.

France bucked the falling harvest trend, with a four percent rise, making it by far the world’s biggest wine producer.

Wine consumption last year was however at its lowest level since 1996, confirming a fall-off over the last five years, according to the figures.

The trend is partly due to price rises caused by inflation and a sharp fall in wine drinking in China – down a quarter – due to its economic slowdown.

The Portuguese, French and Italians remain the world’s biggest wine drinkers per capita.

Barker said the underlying decrease in consumption is being “driven by demographic and lifestyle changes. But given the very complicated influences on global demand at the moment,” it is difficult to know whether the fall will continue.

“What is clear is that inflation is the dominant factor affecting demand in 2023,” he said.

Land given over to growing grapes to eat or for wine fell for the third consecutive year to 7.2 million hectares (17.7 million acres).

But India became one of the global top 10 grape producers for the first time with a three percent rise in the size of its vineyards.

France, however, has been pruning its vineyards back slightly, with its government paying winemakers to pull up vines or to distil their grapes.

The collapse of the Italian harvest to its lowest level since 1950 does not necessarily mean there will be a similar contraction there, said Barker.

Between floods and hailstones, and damp weather causing mildew in the centre and south of the country, the fall was “clearly linked to meteorological conditions”, he said.

Url copied to clipboard!