Italy is once again split in half from a meteorological point of view: if the Centre-North is experiencing the indirect effects of storm Benjaminwhich is especially striking these days France And United Kingdom with winds over i 130 km/hin Southern Italy temperatures above the seasonal average are expected (with peaks above 25°C) due to the presence of warm air coming partly from the Saharan hinterland and partly from the subtropical Atlantic Ocean.
In the meantime, for today, Thursday 23 October, the Civil Protection has issued aorange alert in Tuscany And Liguria due to heavy rain, frequent electrical activity, storm surges and strong gusts of wind: several schools were closed in the provinces of Livorno, Pisa and Grosseto, while the main damage recorded in the province of Massa Carrara, where up to 131 mm of rain in about 6 hours.
Orange alert in Tuscany: what is causing the bad weather in the Centre-North
The bad weather that is mainly affecting the Ligurian and Tuscan sides is causing the storm Benjaminwhich in recent days is affecting Central Europe and whose indirect effects have also reached Italy: the disturbance associated with the storm, in fact, has led to greater instability in the Centre-North, causing rain, strong winds and storm surges along the coasts. According to forecasts, gusts of wind could reach 130 km/h in the Western Alps, reaching the 80-100km/h on the middle and upper Tyrrhenian side.
The low-pressure system, formed over the North Atlantic, will mainly hit the coasts of the United Kingdom and France, where winds of over 130 km/h, strong storm surges and accumulations of rain even exceeding the 50 mm within a few hours.
As regards our country, the Civil Protection has issued an orange weather alert for various sectors of Liguria and Tuscany and a yellow alert for Friuli Venezia Giulia, Veneto, Valle D’Aosta, Emilia-Romagna, Abruzzo and Umbria. According to the forecasts released, the depression structure will lead to widespread rainfall, frequent electrical activity and intense ventilation up to stormy weather over Liguria, Emilia-Romagna and the central peninsular regions, with strong stormy gusts in correspondence with the Apennine mountains.
Because the heat is returning to the South with temperatures above average
However, the situation that arises is completely different Southern Italywhere temperatures above the seasonal average are expected over the weekend, with peaks above 25°C. If the Centre-North will experience the effects of the Atlantic depression, the southern regions will instead be exposed to a pull of warmer air, partly coming from the Saharan hinterland and partly from the subtropical Atlantic Ocean.
All this is due to the emergence of an anticyclonic field, which often underlies more stable atmospheric conditions and high temperatures.
Because Italy is often divided in half from a meteorological point of view
But why is Italy often split in two when it comes to the weather? It all has to do with the position of our country and its morphology, on the one hand exposed to the entrance of disturbances of Atlantic origin or Northern European (with a series of complications linked to the presence of reliefs such as the Alps and Apennines), on the other to North African anticyclonic dynamicsall immersed in a basin like that of the Mediterranean which acts as a source of humidity and alters air circulation at a local level.
To all this, we must add the fact that the Italian climate is becoming tropicalised (also due to the increase in the temperature of the Mediterranean waters), with increasingly higher average temperatures, but also increasingly intense rainfall which manifests itself with greater violence.
