Severe thunderstorms and fires in Italy kill at least 5 people

In the middle of summer, climatic incidents are increasing in Italy, where storms and fires killed five people on Tuesday. Heavy rains fell on Milan, while temperatures exceed 47° in the south of the country.

For the Italian government, there is no doubt that climate change is at work. At least five people were killed on Tuesday July 25 in Italy in violent thunderstorms in the north and fires in Sicily, which could prompt the government to declare a state of emergency in the most affected regions.

“It is with great sadness that I learned the tragic news of two accidents caused by bad weather in which a 16-year-old girl was killed in a scout camp in Brescia (north) and a woman in Lissone (north) by falling trees”, wrote the head of government Giorgia Meloni in a message on Twitter, renamed “X”.

Violent winds – up to 110 km/h – heavy rain and hail battered Milan, the country’s economic capital, at dawn on Tuesday, flooding streets and uprooting trees, many of which fell On Pavement. The local public transport company deplored serious damage to the electricity network, while an AFP journalist noted a temporary water cut in the historic center of the city.

Along with these bad weather hitting the north of the peninsula, the south is affected by a heat wave with a temperature of 47.6 ° C recorded Monday in Catania, Sicily, according to local Civil Protection. The bodies of two septuagenarians were found charred in a house engulfed in flames and an 88-year-old woman died near Palermo, media reported on Tuesday evening.

Hailstones of record size

Sicilian firefighters also fought overnight from Monday to Tuesday against several fires, one of which happened near Palermo airport, which was closed for several hours in the morning. The president of the Sicilian region, Renato Schifani, has indicated that he wants to ask the government, which meets on Wednesday in the council of ministers, to declare a state of emergency on the Mediterranean island.

Videos posted on social networks show the flames along a highway in front of flabbergasted travelers near Syracuse, while an impressive supercell storm near Verona (north) was captured by Internet users.

According to the European Severe Storms Laboratory, which identifies major weather phenomena, a hailstone with a record size of 19 cm was measured Monday evening in Azzano Decimo, in the province of Pordenone (northeast). Rail transport is also affected by these fires.

“We are living in Italy one of the most complicated days of the last decades: floods, tornadoes and giant hail in the north, scorching heat and devastating fires in the south,” Civil Protection Minister Nello Musumeci wrote on Facebook on Tuesday. “The climatic upheaval affecting our country imposes on all of us, without any alibi for anyone, a change of attitude”, added the minister.

AFP