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WEATHER

Italy braces for strong winds and heavy rain as Storm Louis approaches

Five Italian regions were placed under weather warnings on Monday as a cold front moves in from the Atlantic, with storms, snow and possible hail forecast.

Published: 26 February 2024 13:48 CET
Strong winds and heavy rains were forecast for Liguria and four other Italian regions on Monday.
Strong winds and heavy rains were forecast for Liguria and four other Italian regions on Monday. Photo by Marco BERTORELLO / AFP.

Storms, heavy rain and strong winds are forecast for Italy over the next few days as Storm Louis moves in from France.

The storm, which recorded windspeeds of over 100km/h, caused one death in France’s Deux-Sèvres department and left 90,000 homes in the north of the country without electricity last week.

Italy’s Civil Protection Department issued ‘yellow’ weather alerts for the northernwestern regions of Liguria and Piedmont on Monday, as well as for parts of Lombardy, Tuscany and Emilia-Romagna.

In a press release issued on Sunday, the department warned of “widespread rainfall and heavy snowfall,” as well as “possible hailstorms and strong gusts of wind”.

Snow is expected above altitudes of 400-600m in southern Piedmont and the bordering Liguria hinterland, and at 600-800m in parts of Piedmont, Lombardy, Veneto and the province of Trento, authorities said. 

A yellow alert is the least severe of Italy’s three-tier colour-coded weather warning system, but still indicates some level of risk.

READ ALSO: EXPLAINED: What do Italy’s storm alerts mean?

River levels are likely to rise rapidly and waterways could become flooded, as could nearby underpasses, tunnels, and basement-level structures.

There is the occasional threat to public safety and the possibility that lives could be lost in unforeseen circumstances.

On Monday, an external staircase collapsed at a school in Genoa following several hours of heavy rain. No one was injured in the incident, though a parked car was reportedly damaged by the falling debris.

While the disturbance will begin in the north of the country, parts of Sardinia, followed by Lazio, Umbria and Marche, can expect heavy rainfall later in the day.

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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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