Elsewhere in Weather News: November 15th, 2014

More Flooding Hits Italy

Italy has seen its fair share of rainfall this past week, especially in the northern tier of the country including the city of Milan. Trouble started off in early November when a system originating from the Mediterranean Sea brought abnormal amounts of moisture into the region, producing heavy rainfall over a sizeable portion of Italy. This system, associated with a slow moving negatively tilted trough, dug down into southwestern Europe and triggered isolated thunderstorms and widespread rain. The system dumped copious amounts of rainfall – over 100mm fell in northern parts of Italy. With already saturated grounds from previous events in the past few weeks, this meant trouble for some villages.

Milan and surrounding areas saw the worst of the flooding. Subway systems were inundated with water, streets were flooded with over a foot of water and schools were forced to close. Two rivers in the region, the Seveso and Lambro, overflowed their banks and contributed to the flooding. The flooding is responsible for five deaths and estimated damages in excess of 100 million dollars.

Significant repairs will have to be done to this central Milan canal wall and road which collapsed due to the saturated ground below that gave way. (Source: @SimoneEneaRicco)
Significant repairs will have to be done to this central Milan canal wall and road which collapsed due to the saturated ground below that gave way. (Source: @SimoneEneaRicco)

Northern Italy will remain soggy over the weekend, with another 10-20mm expected due to the same slow moving trough which continues to linger. Throughout November Milan usually sees about 100mm of precipitation, but just half-way through they have already surpassed it.

By the beginning of next week there’s a good chance that things will start to clear up as a weak ridge builds in.

Elsewhere in Weather News: August 3rd, 2013

Damaging Tornado Touches Down in Italy

On Tuesday, the 30th of July a strong tornado touched down in the northern part of Italy in the city of Milan. The storm which was associated with the same upper level low as talked about in last week’s EIWN, as well as a very potent shortwave nearby, was fed by very moist air coming straight from the Mediterranean Sea. The conditions were favorable for tornadoes with low cloud bases and a favorable shear profile.

The tornado, rated an EF-2 (winds of 178-217km/h) on the Enhanced Fujita scale, touched down in the industrial part of Milan, called Grezzago. It quickly picked up lots of debris; easily ripped off roofs, snapped trees and even picked up vehicles. One lucky resident caught in the tornado remembers her car being lifted into the air and thrown about 10 meters, she was uninjured. Thankfully, no fatalities came from this tornado, though 15 people were found to have injuries caused by the twister. There easily could have been more injuries, such as the person who was filming this video, had the windows not held up.

Very dangerous video of an office worker watching the tornado from close up. Notice all the debris. (Source: AP)

This is not the first serious tornado Italy has seen this year, back in the beginning of May, a strong EF-3 tornado touched down in the central part of Italy, caused quite a bit of damage as well as injured 20 people. Italy will get a break this weekend as no severe weather outbreaks are expected.