Unforecast weather tears through Cremona resulting in the loss of the cathedral spire, ten churches damaged, and thousands of cars destroyed.
Dozens of people were injured after a tornado tore through the northern Italian city of Cremona, bringing heavy hail and widespread destruction in its wake. The extreme weather comes amid a punishing summer for Italy, which, like much of Europe, has faced repeated bouts of extreme heat, with the country currently in the grip of its fifth heatwave of the season.
Italy’s fire brigade said it responded to more than 500 emergency calls within hours of the storm hitting. Ten churches were damaged, including Cremona’s main cathedral, one of the city’s most recognisable landmarks. A spire fell from one of the cathedral’s towers, altering its historic silhouette, while many of the city’s other historic churches suffered extensive damage to windows and skylights.
Homes evacuated, thousands of cars damaged
Twelve families were evacuated after their homes were damaged by flying debris or lost their roofs entirely. Hundreds of trees were brought down across the city, compounding damage to buildings. Furthermore, some 10,000 cars were damaged by a combination of the hailstorm and falling trees in the tornado’s aftermath, according to the fire brigade.
Several barns were also badly damaged, and low-lying roads flooded. The city government said the cost of the damage is expected to run into millions of euros.
The storm struck as Cremona — famed worldwide for its Stradivari violin-making tradition — was holding a local festival, causing extensive damage to festival pavilions and leaving multiple people injured.
Francesca Co, director of the city’s emergency services, said most of the injured had since been discharged, though one patient remained under observation and four trauma patients required hospitalisation. She described emergency crews managing the near-simultaneous arrival of more than forty casualties, saying the emergency system had responded promptly to the surge.
No warning issued for rare weather event
Tornadoes remain a relatively rare occurrence in Italy, and no watches or warnings had been issued ahead of the storm, according to the country’s civil protection agency.
On Saturday, fire brigade and civil defence teams carried out building inspections across the city, while several roads remained closed. The forestry department was also inspecting the so-called “violin forests” — the woodland from which timber for Cremona’s famous instruments is sourced — to assess any impact on the trees prized by generations of luthiers.
