Drought and the problems inherent to our island continue to be a constant.
The hopes of a recovery with the April rains were small but they did not materialize.
As we have seen in previous months the little rainfall unfortunately they did not lead to a recovery of the rainfall deficit accumulated since autumn, on the contrary, if anything they accentuated the drought conditions in some areas where rain contributions were again heavily inferior to those expected.
The reservoirs are increasingly drierin the month of March, as already mentioned (CLICK HERE) we counted less than 90% water. For the month of April things have not changed, the history of Sicily and one long series of months with lower rainfall to the norm, it is now too well known. We can absolutely define it as an extreme anomaly, the little rain that there has been gives the island of drought no escape.
The hopes of a recovery significant of the heavy deficit accumulated during the autumn and winter were concentrated above all for thebeginning of the month, when significant rainfall could have saved at least part of the cereal production, but what was hoped did not happen. Many of the crops were lost entirely.
There regional average of monthly precipitation was equal to 23mm approximatelycompared to a normal value of 41 mm for the period 2003-2023.
The phenomena were practically completely absent in the first part of the monthwhile the three disturbances which occurred in the second part of the month and affected only the island marginally and were characterized by an almost total absence of convective activitythus producing widespread but quantitatively insignificant phenomena.
In the regional average number a deficit was recorded in most cities. I am 3.2 compared to a normal value of 6with a maximum of 8 rainy days registered by Sias Cesarò Monte Soro station (Messina) and a minimum of only one rainy day recorded by Santa Croce Camerina station (Ragusa).
On the Sias network the maximum monthly accumulation of 78.6mm was registered by San Fratello station (Messina)while the maximum daily accumulation was recorded on day 16 from Gangi station (Palermo) with 27 mm.
Overall, the scarcity of rainfall, even without having yet taken on the characteristics of long-term drought events in the past, as far as the medium term is concerned, is increasingly taking on contours of an extreme climate anomaly.
From the September 1, 2023 the precipitation was only the overall for Sicily half of normal valuesbut there are areas of eastern Sicily where less than 30% of what was expected based on the climate.
To an analysis, although not easy, of the long historical seriesfor the area of Catania the period September-Aprilwith 191.2mm totaled in 8 months from Sias stationappears to have been absolutely among the driest of the series Hydrological Annals starting from 1916.
Even by applying homogenization factors to the Sias series with respect to the series recorded in the past in the urban area, which unfortunately are no longer acquired today, the accumulation recorded this year appears only lower than the values recorded by the Catania Gcoo.mm station in the period 1968-69, however, its validity is very uncertain.
The failure to reconstitute adequate water reserves in the reservoir system and in underground water bodies suggests that the interventions to be made must be imminent. Furthermore, in the remaining spring months, significantly higher than normal rainfall would be needed to alleviate the current drought.
