After the great heat, a disturbance passing through central Europe brings showers and thunderstorms, including intense ones, to Italy. The Civil Protection has issued a yellow alert for meteorological-hydrogeological risk for 13 regions. The warning of adverse weather conditions predicts scattered precipitation with a prevailing shower and thunderstorm character from late morning in Lombardy, Trentino-Alto Adige, Veneto and Emilia-Romagna, extending to Tuscany, Umbria, Marche and Abruzzo. The phenomena will be accompanied by heavy showers, strong gusts of wind, local hailstorms and frequent electrical activity.
The rains and thunderstorms caused by the low pressure area coming from the Atlantic will affect all of Tuscany today. For this reason, the Single Operations Room of the Regional Civil Protection has extended the yellow weather alert for strong storms with hydrogeological-hydraulic risk of the minor grid to all areas of the region, valid until midnight today, Monday 17 August.
The subtropical anticyclone, which has dominated the scene in recent weeks, bringing record temperatures, paves the way for the entry of more unstable currents. The first phase, explains Federico Brescia, meteorologist at iLMeteo.it, will manifest itself today, Monday 17 August, with a first relatively contained storm passage, which will primarily involve the Alpine and pre-Alpine range, the North-East, the Ligurian East, upper Tuscany and the Adriatic side. On Tuesday 18th the showers will descend towards the southern regions, while large clearings are expected on the rest of the Peninsula. From Thursday 20 August the mathematical models indicate the arrival of a much more structured disturbance starting from the North-West, and then extending to the entire North and the Tyrrhenian sectors. Given the very large quantity of thermal energy and humidity accumulated in the previous weeks in the soil and on marine surfaces, this worsening could give rise to strong thunderstorms and hailstorms. The first refreshment between Monday and Tuesday will bring a rather limited drop in temperatures, however useful for dampening the most extreme peaks of heat. The temperature drop will instead become more marked in the second half of the week in the North and in the Tyrrhenian regions, coinciding with the most intense phase of bad weather.
The truce from heat waves has begun, today and tomorrow there is a prevalence of the green dot in the 27 cities monitored by the Ministry of Health's heat wave bulletin. The 'refresh', however, will stop as early as Wednesday when an orange warning is expected (level 2 alert "weather conditions that may represent a risk to health, in particular in the most susceptible population subgroups") in Rome and Rieti. Today, 15 of the 27 cities have a green badge, tomorrow there will be 20 of the 27.
A wave of bad weather hit Lombardy yesterday, causing damage in several provinces overnight, with trees uprooted and roofs uncovered. A landslide occurred yesterday in the municipality of Premana (Lecco) and the firefighters intervened several times to rescue some boats on Lake Lecco. Right in the Lecco area, a 20-year-old died due to bad weather. The boy was on the shore in Malgrate and was swimming when the storm arrived. The body was then recovered by the Malpensa fire brigade with divers.
In Laglio (Como), four Spanish tourists, who were stranded on Mount Colmegnone, were recovered with a helicopter by firefighters while in the lower Cremonese area the strong wind uprooted plants and trees and uncovered the roofs of some houses. Heavy rain also hit Milan in the evening. The Natural Risks Monitoring Center of the Lombardy Region has issued a yellow warning for the risk of thunderstorms in the Lombardy capital starting from yesterday afternoon and until midnight today.
During the night on Piz Starlex, over 3 thousand meters above sea level, above Tubre in Val Monastero, a man was found lifeless after being reported missing. The last telephone contact took place around 1pm, directly from the top of Piz Starlex. At that moment a storm was approaching. When, in the dark, the man had not yet returned, a search was launched shortly after 10pm through the provincial emergency centre. The body, recovered and taken to the valley, was identified by rescuers thanks to the use of a drone at 11.44pm in the area of path no. 4, at approximately 2,600 meters above sea level, in difficult terrain. According to initial information, the victim was struck by lightning during the descent. The rescue was useless. Around 40 people from the Tubre Alpine Rescue, the Silandro Financial Police Alpine Rescue, the Tubre Volunteer Fire Brigade and the Prato allo Stelvio Alpine Rescue were involved in the intervention with the district's drone.
After heat and drought, bad weather: it was a night of super work for the firefighters of Cremona, busy in the province due to a whirlwind that uncovered roofs, tore down signs, damaged buildings and uprooted lighting poles, also causing several blackouts. The Pizzighetto area, between Formigara and Crotta d'Adda, and a portion of Cremasco were particularly affected. Wind and rain also created traffic difficulties with several roads occupied by fallen trees and branches.
During yesterday evening, four Spanish tourists remained stranded on Mount Colmegnone, in the Laglio area (Como), due to the violent storm that affected the area. The Drago 153 Fire Brigade helicopter intervened for the recovery, operating in particularly difficult weather conditions, at the limit of operation, characterized by strong wind and rain. Despite the adverse conditions - explain the firefighters - the crew managed to reach and recover the four tourists, who were subsequently transported to Argegno. The four, visibly scared, were unharmed.
Due to adverse weather conditions and the passage of an intense storm, a landslide was reported in the municipality of Premana (Lecco). The Malpensa Fire Brigade was activated to carry out an overflight of the affected area, in order to verify the extent of the instability and identify any further critical issues. Ground teams of the Fire Brigade are operating on site, with further resources being sent to support. At the same time, following the bad weather, several rescue operations were reported for boats on Lake Lecco, for which the Fire Brigade teams were involved.
