Flooding Affects Italy
Severe flooding has been taking place in Sardinia, Italy this past week causing residents to rush for higher ground. Sardinia is one of Italy’s islands located in the Mediterranean Sea; about 1.7 million Italians reside here. An upper level low drew in moist air from the Mediterranean Sea and spun just off the coast of Sardinia, causing for some significant flooding on the island. Rainfall totals generally ranged between 35 and 50mm on the island, which is over half of their monthly total for November.
As this fell in a span of about 24 hours, sewers were unable to handle these large volumes of water in that short period of time. In some areas water levels reached about three meters, causing roads and bridges to be washed away. As of Friday night 18 fatalities had been reported. Several waterspouts and brief tornadoes had also been spawned by this system off of Italy’s coast and on the mainland.
Tornadoes Rip through US Midwest
In last week’s post of EIWN the risk for severe storms affecting the Midwest US had been briefly talked about. The event that occurred on Sunday was a fairly significant event; the moderate risk talked about in last week’s post had been upgraded to a high risk on Sunday – a risk only issued once or twice by the SPC when major severe weather events are imminent. This severe weather event followed up with all the hype ahead of it. In total, 106 tornado reports were received and 74 tornadoes were confirmed. Two of these were classified as EF-4 strength and 33 classified of EF-2 strength and higher, making November 17th a significant tornado outbreak in the Midwest. There were also numerous (400+) wind damage reports scattered from Iowa to New Jersey, as expected with the high shear environment on that day. One of the strongest tornadoes of the day – an EF-4 ripped through the town of Washington, Ill., where some houses were completely ripped apart by the twister. Death toll from the outbreak is at eight but could have been significantly higher if not for the good forecasting and swift warning issuance by NWS.
