Read news from:
Austria
SHARE
COPY LINK
For members

WEATHER

Which are the Italian cities with the ‘best’ climate?

Italy’s geographical variety means that local climate conditions can change greatly depending on the area you're in – but which are the cities with the 'best' climate?

Published: 29 March 2024 16:44 CET
Puglia
The old port of Bari, Puglia, in May 2017. Photo by FILIPPO MONTEFORTE / AFP

Italy is generally considered one of the countries with the most pleasant climate conditions in the world (it came in 5th in the latest global climate ranking by World Population Review).

But Italy’s extremely varied national landscape – a unique blend of mountainous, hilly and coastal areas – means that climate conditions can vary greatly from region to region, or even from city to city.

The latest climate index from newspaper Il Sole 24 Ore collated data collected by weather website 3bMeteo between 2013 and 2023 (this took into account ten meteorological factors, including annual rainfall, humidity, number of extreme weather events and hours of sunshine) to reveal which Italian cities enjoy the best climate – and which ones have the worst. 

The report named Bari, the capital of the southern Puglia region, the Italian city with the best overall climate. 

According to the report, Bari – a port city overlooking the Adriatic sea – has an average of eight and a half hours of sunshine every day (the national average stands at 7.8 hours), only 74 rainy days a year (the rainiest Italian city, Lecco, has 122) and just nine days of ‘extreme’ rainfall.

Besides Bari, the top five was completed by Imperia (Liguria), Barletta-Andria-Trani (Puglia), Catania (Sicily) and Pescara (Abruzzo).

These were followed by Livorno (Tuscany), Chieti (Abruzzo), Brindisi (Puglia), Agrigento (Sicily) and Cagliari (Sardinia).

READ ALSO: REVEALED: The most polluted towns in Italy in 2024

Jumping from the top of the ranking to the bottom, Belluno, in the northern Veneto region, was the Italian city with the worst local climate.

According to the report, the northern town sees an average of 6.7 hours of sunshine every day (over an hour below national average), some 118 rainy days a year and high humidity levels on a total of 255 days a year on average.

Belluno was preceded by Alessandria (Piedmont), Pavia (Lombardy), Cremona (Lombardy), Piacenza (Emilia Romagna), Lodi (Lombardy), Asti (Piedmont) and Ferrara (Emilia Romagna).

With the only exception of Belluno, all cities in the bottom ten are located in the Po Valley.

As for Italy’s largest cities, the capital Rome ranked 25th, Naples ranked 26th, while Genoa came in 43rd. Lombardy’s capital Milan ranked 86th out of 107.

Member comments

Log in here to leave a comment.
Become a Member to leave a comment.

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.

SHOW COMMENTS