Italy plagued by floods, fires, wind and drought

The whole of Italy is undergoing the effect of increasingly intense and frequent extreme climatic events. First, throughout the summer months, the Drought they fires they have devastated fields and forests. While now it is the turn of the floods and of storms. Only in the past two weeks have they been affected the Trentino on 5 August, Campania on 9, Stromboli on 12 and finally Liguria and Tuscany. These are only the first dramatic data of the rainfall that is mainly passing through Northern Italy, but which have already reached the South and will soon reach the whole country, while the latest report from the Higher Institute for Environmental Protection and Research (Ispra) reminds us that 94% of Italian municipalities are at risk from landslides, floods or coastal erosion.

1. Drought
2. Fires
3. Floods

The great drought

Dry rivers, agriculture at risk: the consequences of extreme heat

The most severe drought since the nineteenth century has swept across the country, drying up the streams and ponds, bringing the Lake Garda at the lowest levels of the last fifteen years. But if in the North, the drought seems to have come to an end, replaced by violent showers and low temperatures, in the center-south and in the South the emergency is not over yet and the thermometer will touch 45 degrees in Sicily and Sardiniawhile in cities like Naples and Rome it will also reach above 40 degrees.

The arid climate, dry fields and drying woods leave fertile ground for the fires and fires that, until August 15, 2022, have covered 42,569 hectares of landfor a total of 365 fires. However, in addition to climate change, the phenomenon of fires is directly aggravated by humans, with approx six out of ten fires started by human handoften, as he points out Coldirettiat work with a real criminal plan to incinerate thousands of hectares of woods.

For some days, drought and aridity in central-northern and northern Italy have been replaced by other violent atmospheric events, such as record rainfall, hailstorms and tornadoes. On 5 August, violent thunderstorms hit the Trentinoin particular Val di Fleres and Val di Fassa, with flooded streams and huge mudslides that forced the authorities to evacuate private homes, hotels and call in over 40 fire brigade teams.

But not even the South has been spared, despite the temperatures still remaining very high. Between 9 and 10 August, heavy showers flooded Casertasome municipalities in the province of Avellinothe island of Capri And Sorrento, where several landslides caused by mud blocked some roads. On August 12, however, it was the turn of the Sicilian island of Stromboli, where the regional council declared a state of crisis, due to a record storm. In just one hour they fell apart 60mm of rain of which more than half in just 15 minutes, that is the same amount of rain which hits on average on Stromboli during the entire month of May.