Rome – After days of heat with local highs exceeding 40 degrees, a change in the weather is expected this weekend. Starting Thursday, the first severe thunderstorms will move into the north, while the south and the islands will initially remain in the heat. Italy is thus meteorologically split into two halves.
The first major weather system since mid-May reached the northwest and slowly moved eastward over the following hours. Unstable weather was expected to last about 48 hours, peaking between Thursday and Friday evening. The Po Valley and the neighboring Alpine valleys were particularly affected, with localized heavy rain and hail. In the area around Como and in the Valtellina, more than 200 liters of rain per square meter fell within a few hours—an amount that usually falls over the course of an entire summer.
How much will temperatures drop in the north?
With the thunderstorms, high temperatures in the north dropped noticeably. Instead of the previously recorded temperatures of around 35 degrees, highs of only 27 to 28 degrees were expected in many places over the weekend; in some regions, daily highs fell below 25 degrees. The African high-pressure system, which the The heat wave of the past few days had caused the heat, giving way in the north to a significantly milder air mass. In the center of the country, such as in Tuscany, temperatures settled at a more pleasant 30 degrees; a transition zone between the two weather systems runs through that area.
Why Does the South Stay Hot?
In the south, the weather system had little effect. Campania, Apulia, Basilicata, and Calabria remained trapped in the heat, with highs ranging from 38 to 40 degrees; in Sicily, temperatures approached the 41-degree mark. The reason for this is a persistent high-pressure system over the central Mediterranean, which lingered longer in the south than in the north. According to initial estimates, the heat there could last into the first few days of September. For travelers in southern Italy and on the islands, this means that a cool-down anytime soon is out of the question for now, while in the north, umbrellas are once again a necessity.
It is not yet possible to say with certainty how long this split will last. However, weather models consistently indicate that the high-pressure system over the south will likely strengthen rather than dissipate in the coming week, while the north is expected to experience more changeable, autumn-like weather.
