Eight people have died so far caused by the exceptional polar cold wave that is engulfing Italy with a further drop in temperatures, which should subside in the next few hours. Six homeless people are among the victims. In the night between Friday and Saturday, the lows of all the main cities, excluding Genoa and the islands, were below zero degrees, even significantly, with peaks of over -20 degrees in mountain areas.
In Pescara there was a new closure of the airport due to bad weather and in Abruzzo the thermometer dropped to -20 even at low altitudes. In Puglia, on the other hand, four hikers stranded in the Alta Murgia countryside were rescued, while in the Parma Apennines a 29-year-old hiker blocked by ice was rescued by Alpine Rescue. The snow has whitened Umbria, Marche, Abruzzo, Molise, Campania, Basilicata, Puglia, Calabria and Sicily.
Snow and intense cold have also arrived in the areas affected by the earthquakes of recent months, making the situation even more complicated for the local populations. Among other things, on Friday night in central Italy, with its epicenter in the L'Aquila area, there were 8 earthquakes, not of strong intensity (the strongest around a magnitude of 3 degrees).
