Italy has seen its fair share of extreme weather this year, fueled by climate change. Heavy rain drenched Italy from the Piedmont region to Sicily on Monday and Tuesday.
A complex of thunderstorms over northwestern Italy on Monday dropped a torrent for 12-hours. Never in the history of European weather observations had so much rain fallen.
In just 12 hours, 29.2 inches of rain fell in Rossiglione in Italy’s Genoa province. That equalled more than half a typical year’s rainfall. A typical October sees rainfall of 6 to 7 inches.
Ligura bombarded
The storms bombarded much of Liguria, resulting in flooding and mudslides. On top of that the sky lit up with more than half-a-million lightning strikes.
A bridge in Quiliano, near Savona in Northern Italy, collapsed after heavy rains. The Associated Press reported the Mediterranean port city of Savona, just south of Cairo Montenotte, was hit hardest by the flooding. The River Letimbro overflowed, flooding parts of the town.
Weather devastates farms
Severe weather devastated farms in some areas. The northwest was particularly badly affected, according to the agriculture industry association Coldiretti.
The storms “devastated fields, pastures, stables and agricultural vehicles as well as blocking roads and causing landslides and landslides in the countryside,” the association said in a press release published on Tuesday.
Also, the river Po, Italy’s longest river, rose three metres in 24 hours. The Po runs eastward across northern Italy starting from the Cottian Alps.
Coldiretti estimates Italy’s agricultural industry has lost €2 billion so far this year as a result of extreme weather events.
