We haven't seen such a cool and rainy summer in Italy since 1997, but it's too early to sing victory. It may be that Covid has also put global warming on hold, but so far the data for this first half of summer (meteorologically, summer includes the months of June, July and August) speak for themselves: it hasn't rained this much in 23 years, the month of June was the fourth wettest of the last 60 years, and only once in the last 25 years the temperatures of the month of June (and also those of the first half of July) had been so "cool". Even slightly below average: an absolute novelty after years in which temperatures, in Italy and around the world, have continued to rise.
And don't be deceived by the heat of these days, especially in the South: it won't last long, during the week the storms will return first in the North and then also in the Centre-South. “Even in July – Meteo Expert meteorologists explain – the heat should be average or slightly below average. But taking stock now would be premature, given that August and even September can hold surprises. We expect more sustained heat in August, even if so far no African waves like those seen in the recent past are on the horizon”. In short, the torrid heat will arrive, but it will be broken within a few days by storms and refreshments.
And so the summer of Covid could be the first, after a long time, without alerts from the Civil Protection: so far there has been no sticker, not even yellow, for the heat, while from 29 June to 17 July there have been 6 yellow alerts (on 3 July even in 16 Regions) and three orange alerts, all for rain and thunderstorms. The rain was the great protagonist of this first half of summer: in June in Italy it rained 55% more than average (calculated in the period 1981-2010), with sensational peaks in the North-West (+80%), in the South (+130%) and in Sicily (+115%). A clear anomaly also in the North-East (+40%) and in Sardinia (+35%), a bit more normal in the Center (in any case +10%).
If in terms of rainfall this year was the fourth wettest June in 60 years, in terms of temperatures it was the second least hot since the mid-90s. Temperatures were average almost everywhere, but a marked drop compared to recent years (June 2020 -1,7°C compared to June 2019) and in some cases even below average, albeit slightly: in the North-East (Veneto, Trentino, Friuli and Emilia-Romagna) with -0,2°C and in Sicily with -0,3°C. Even the surface temperature of the sea, due to the strong winds, was below average. This year the heat is giving us a break, but summer isn't over yet.
