Winter, at least the meteorological one, i.e. between December 1st and February 28th, is getting ready to close with a bang. After a December that was colder than the average and copious snowfalls even in the plains, and a January and the first part of February that were milder than they should ("even if January was still less mild than those of 2016 and 2017", guarantee from the center Epson Meteo), February will end with two cold spells and below average temperatures, especially in the first days of next week. This will give, overall and in contrast with recent years, a decidedly average winter in terms of temperatures and without any anomaly regarding rainfall, given that there have been snowfalls and how.
“On the other hand – explains Raffaele Salerno of Epson Meteo – it must have been a winter with considerable variations, full of ups and downs. But putting it all together, if it's really going to be as cold as predicted by the end of the month, it will have been an absolutely normal winter, for once." But let's go in order: a first wave of cold, intense but in line with the period, is already affecting almost the entire peninsula these days, especially the Centre-North, with lows well below zero degrees and highs just above, even in cities like Rome where they usually exceed 10 degrees. “This first wave will decrease between now and the end of the week – explains Salerno -, but at the beginning of the next one the actual frost will arrive. An event that for the end of February is not entirely anomalous, but very rare”.
February will therefore end with a bang: very cold everywhere and snow possible even at low altitudes especially on the Adriatic side, even if it will be a rather dry cold that could bring precipitation only at high altitudes and ice in the plains. In fact, the temperatures will be "blackbird days", which are usually the last of January and therefore a month late: in the North, even the highs could find it difficult to exceed 0 degrees. And looking at the first projections for the beginning of the awaited spring, i.e. for the month of March, while taking them with due caution, they indicate a trend towards a climate that is still cool, so to speak, perhaps even below average in terms of temperatures. In short, spring will be late in exploding and 2018 presents itself – for now and looking only at Italy – going against the trend compared to the continuous increase in temperatures in recent years.
