“Severe Weather Warning: Weekend Cyclone Brings Storms and Floods Across Italy”

Weekend again compromise! Another cyclone of this stormy spring is about to arrive. The latest updates, which have just arrived, have confirmed the new phase of bad weather expected for the weekend and indeed have increased the areas potentially at risk, even of real storms in at least 4 regions, between Saturday 20 and Sunday 21 May.

The Mediterranean basin continues to boil: the lack of a solid high pressure figure leaves the doors wide open to the passage of low-pressure fronts, driven by unstable currents. One of these will hook a cyclone rising from North Africa, giving it new strength and vigour; the connected front will determine an insidious worsening of the weather which risks affecting the whole weekend.
Maximum attention already from Saturday 20 May when there are many expected rains and thunderstorms over most of Italy. As the map below shows, the most at risk will be the Piedmont where they are expected up to 150 mm of rain (150 liters per square metre, colour rosso) in a few hours: this could raise the probability of flooding e dude along the slopes due to the persistence of rainfall.

Given the great potential energy involved (seas already warm for the period, strong thermal contrasts and a lot of humidity in the lower layers), extreme events such as hail, storms and violent gusts of wind (especially pay attention to Sicily, Sardinia and Calabria).

The latest updates leave no doubts even for Sunday 21: we will still have there possibility, more than concrete, of thunderstorms, especially at Northwest (pay attention again to Piedmont), part of central Tyrrhenian side and, news of the last update, also on the two Major Islands (eye in particular to Sardinia).

In short, it will be advisable to keep an umbrella close at hand; however, as often happens this season, the rainfall will not last all day, but will be interspersed with dry breaks, at least in the Centre.
More sunny spaces finally are expected in the Northeast and on the Adriatic side, areas temperatures are also expected to gradually increase, especially in the maximum values.