End of summer 2026: storms arriving and temperatures dropping from Wednesday

The great heat of summer 2026 is coming to an end: the next two days could be the last with above-average temperatures and fresh air and rain are expected from Wednesday. "A substantial change is coming compared to what we have seen so far", observes Bernado Gozzini, director of the Lamma consortium of the National Research Council. If long-term forecasts are impossible and the end of September could reserve some surprises, certainly "the break of a long summer" is now imminent.

This is determined by a "greater dynamism of the atmospheric circulation" due to the arrival of a disturbance coming from the Atlantic: an area of ​​low pressure that will initially arrive in Great Britain and France and then in Italy, where a sharp drop in temperature is expected. The transition is expected on Wednesday 9th, but in the northern regions the first signs of the change could arrive as early as Tuesday, with lower temperatures and instability in the regions of the Alps, in particular Piedmont, Lombardy and Veneto.

On Wednesday 9th the instability will extend to all the regions of the Centre-North, from Lazio upwards. The mass of cold air at high altitude will collide with the warm air accumulated so far, bringing precipitation. Therefore, "intense thunderstorms are expected and gusts of wind and hailstorms cannot be ruled out: it will be a situation - says Gozzini - to be followed in each region".

On Thursday 10th the disturbance is also expected in all the Tyrrhenian and southern regions, in particular in Sicily, Campania, Puglia and Calabria; the bad weather will also persist in the Centre, in Lazio, Tuscany and Marche, while some sunshine will appear in Piedmont and Lombardy. Residual thunderstorms are expected on Friday and next weekend again in the South, in Puglia, Calabria and Basilicata.

"This substantial change could last until mid-September, but what will happen then remains to be seen", says Gozzini. "In recent years - he observes - September has been a summer month and there are still no elements to exclude a hot end of September, with the return of temperatures above 30 degrees".