African anticyclone persists, but storms arrive in the North

African anticyclone Caronte without end, but thunderstorms and hail are coming to the North due to a cyclone between Scotland and Iceland that will shake up the situation a bit in Italy. Lorenzo Tedici, meteorologist of the site www.iLMeteo.it, confirms the dominance of the African anticyclone, present in Italy for three weeks: a record persistence that has made us suffer the heat since July 15, continuously. However, in the next few hours the slow movement of a deep extratropical cyclone between Iceland, Scotland and Norway will cause a sharp increase in instability in the North with thunderstorms and local hailstorms. Heavy showers are expected first on the Alps, then extending to the central-western Po Valley (in a patchy fashion in the afternoon) and subsequently moving towards the East. In practice, we will find some intense thunderstorms in the plains with the sad possibility of some violent phenomena. Caution in the North for these thunderstorms, especially from the afternoon until the following night, also be careful of the African heat that will not loosen its grip on the Center-South: we will have peaks of 38 ° C in Puglia, Sardinia and Sicily, 37 ° C in Terni, 35-36 ° C in Forlì, Bologna and Rome. From Thursday afternoon the passage of the unstable Icelandic-Scottish-Norwegian front will be a faded memory: the African anticyclone Caronte will sweep away any minimal form of organized instability and will cause a further increase in temperatures! Over the weekend we will reach 40 ° C in the shade in Florence and Terni; Benevento, Caserta, Catania, Pistoia, Prato, Siracusa and Taranto will reach 39 ° C. And the beginning of next week will bring a further slight increase in temperatures, the pressure of the African anticyclone will be impressive (geopotential values ​​at 500 hPa, in other words the pressure at altitude, close to 6000 meters), the freezing level will rise to around 5300 meters even in the Alps (last year’s record of 5328 meters is at risk).