Veneto was pounded with hail and experienced severe electrical storms whilst the island of Sicily continued to swelter in extreme heat, this week.
Veneto Governor Luca Zaia said yesterday, that 110 people had suffered injuries after the northeastern region was hit by a wave of extreme weather that included downfalls of huge hail stones.
Zaia said the people suffered the injuries after being hit by the hail or by glass it had broken.
On Friday, a person was in a serious condition after being struck by lightning while walking in a heavy thunderstorm. The incident occurred in the central Piazza Porta Nuova in Verona around 1 pm local time.
The northern Veneto region experienced a new bout of extreme bad weather on Friday after strong winds uprooted trees and caused damage to property on Tuesday. There was also a violent hailstorm with hailstones the size of lemons. The storm result in injured people and devastated crops on Wednesday.
The extreme bad weather events are the flip side of the series of heatwaves that have been gripping Italy recently. Another period of intense heat is forecast for next week.
“I thank the rescuers and technicians who intervened immediately after the events and will continue to work to restore the situation to normality and assess the damage,” Zaia said.
“The hail that fell was absolutely out of the ordinary, with stones of ice that in some cases had diameters of over 10 centimetres”. The governor has declared a regional state of emergency for the areas hit by the extreme weather.
