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WEATHER

Italy to be ‘split in two’ by opposite weather fronts over Easter weekend

Italy faces a weather divide over the Easter weekend, forecasters have said, with rainy conditions expected in the north and the south set for sunshine.

Published: 28 March 2024 16:35 CET
Gondola, Venice
A traditional gondola glides down Venice's Grand Canal on a rainy day. Photo by GABRIEL BOUYS / AFP

The Easter holidays in Italy have been consistently marked by wet and chilly conditions in recent years, and the trend looks set to continue this weekend, though only for part of the country. 

According to the latest reports, the presence of two opposite weather fronts – a cold front sweeping in from western Europe and a warm air area moving up from northern Africa – will create a ‘weather split’ over the weekend, with rainfall expected in northern regions and sunny conditions forecast for much of the centre and south.

The cold front is expected to bring showers of low to medium intensity to all northwestern regions from the early hours of Saturday, March 30th, with rainfall forecast to concentrate in the Lombardy and Liguria regions. 

The rest of the country should experience sunny or partly sunny conditions and daytime temperatures in line with or even above seasonal averages, with the mercury possibly rising as high as 23C to 24C in the south. 

Conditions in the north should worsen on Easter Sunday, with heavy rain expected to hit all northern regions at some point during the day and possibly pushing as far down along the peninsula as Tuscany and Marche. Temperatures during the day are expected to largely range between 14C and 18C depending on the location.

The rest of the country should continue to experience clear skies and warm temperatures throughout the day, with possible daytime highs of 25C in southern regions, including Sicily and Puglia.

Overall weather conditions in the north shouldn’t show any meaningful improvement on Easter Monday (or Pasquetta in Italian) as all regions in the area and northern sections of Tuscany and Marche are expected to see heavy downpours during the day. 

Sunny weather and warm daytime temperatures are forecast to persist across the rest of the peninsula on Monday.

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WEATHER

IN PICTURES: ‘Exceptional’ Sahara dust cloud hits Europe

An "exceptional" dust cloud from the Sahara is choking parts of Europe, the continent's climate monitor said on Monday, causing poor air quality and coating windows and cars in grime.

Published: 8 April 2024 14:15 CEST
IN PICTURES: 'Exceptional' Sahara dust cloud hits Europe

Copernicus Atmosphere Monitoring Service said the latest plume, the third of its kind in recent weeks, was bringing hazy conditions to southern Europe and would sweep northward as far as Scandinavia.

Mark Parrington, senior scientist at Copernicus, said the latest event was related to a weather pattern that has brought warmer weather to parts of Europe in recent days.

“While it is not unusual for Saharan dust plumes to reach Europe, there has been an increase in the intensity and frequency of such episodes in recent years, which could be potentially attributed to changes in atmospheric circulation patterns,” he said.

This latest episode has caused air quality to deteriorate in several countries, Copernicus said.

The European Union’s safe threshold for concentrations of PM10 — coarser particles like sand and dust that that can irritate the nose and throat — has already been exceeded in some locations.

A picture taken on April 8, 2024 shows a rapeseed field under thick sand dust blown in from the Sahara, giving the sky a yellowish appearance near Daillens, western Switzerland. – An “exceptional” dust cloud from the Sahara is choking parts of Europe, the continent’s climate monitor said, causing poor air quality and coating windows and cars in grime. (Photo by Fabrice COFFRINI / AFP)

The worst affected was the Iberian Peninsula in Spain but lesser air pollution spikes were also recorded in parts of Switzerland, France and Germany.

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Local authorities in southeastern and southern France announced that the air pollution threshold was breached on Saturday.

They advised residents to avoid intense physical activity, particularly those with heart or respiratory problems.

The dust outbreak was expected to reach Sweden, Finland and northwest Russia before ending on Tuesday with a shift in weather patterns, Copernicus said.

The Sahara emits between 60 and 200 million tonnes of fine dust every year, which can travel thousands of kilometres (miles), carried by winds and certain meteorological conditions.

The Spanish Canary Islands off the coast of northwest Africa saw just 12 days within a 90-day period from December to February where skies were free of Saharan dust, the local weather agency Aemet had reported.

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