As was easily predictable, with the lack of winter rain the situation regarding the drought in Sicily is worsening further, in a very visible way.
The month of April further extended a very long series of months in Sicily with rainfall below the norm started last September 2023, which increasingly appears to be an extreme anomaly compared to the Sicilian climate.
The hopes of a significant recovery of the heavy deficit accumulated during the autumn and winter were concentrated above all on the beginning of the month, when significant amounts of rain could have saved at least part of the cereal production, which in some areas went instead of all lost.
Discouraging rainfall data
From the data reported by Sias it emerges that the regional average of monthly precipitation was equal to 23 mm approximately, compared to a normal value of 41 mm for the period 2003-2023.
The phenomena were practically completely absent in the first part of the month, while the three disturbances that arrived at the end of April affected Sicily only marginally, producing little significant rainfall in the central and western area.
The regional average number of rainy days was 3.2 compared to a normal value of 6, with a maximum of 8 rainy days recorded by the SIAS Cesarò Monte Soro station (ME) and a minimum of just one rainy day recorded by the Santa Croce Camerina (RG) station.
On the SIAS network the maximum monthly accumulation of 78.6mm was recorded by the station San Fratello (ME), while the maximum daily accumulation was recorded on day 16 by the station Gangi (PA) 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, it increasingly takes on the contours of an extreme climatic anomaly. Especially for the western area of the island, where many reservoirs are at -70% -80% of their capacity.
Below average rainfall since September 2023
Since 1 September 2023, overall rainfall for Sicily has been only half of normal values, but there are areas of eastern Sicily where less than 30% of what was expected based on the climate fell.
From an analysis, although not easy, of the long historical series, for the Catania area the period September-April, with 191.2 mm totalized in 8 months by the SIAS station, appears to have been absolutely among the driest in the series of the 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 to be higher only than the values recorded by Catania GCOO.MM station. in the period 1968-69, however, these data are of very uncertain validity.
