“Despite two cold outbreaks that arrived on Sicily in the second part of April, with their peak recorded on the 19th and 24th, the month as a whole once again showed a significant positive temperature anomaly, further prolonging a decidedly long series of anomalies consecutive positive events starting from September 2023. The very hot phases recorded in the first part of the month have in fact placed 2024 as one of the warmest April months of the last 20 years, only slightly lower, with a regional average of the estimated monthly average equal to at 14.9 °C, the extreme values recorded in 2016 and 2018. The positive difference compared to the April average for the period 2003-2023 was equal to 1.3 °C”. This was said by the technicians of the Sicilian agrometeorological information service who analyzed the data for the month of April in Sicily.
“Such a significant balance can be traced back to three hot phases associated with stretches also accompanied by intense winds from the southern quadrants – add Sias – In particular, the anomaly of the hot phase at the beginning of the month, now running out, produced at the station Torregrotta (Messina) on day 1 the monthly maximum value of 35 °C, as well as the absolute maximum values of the 2002-2023 series also for nine other stations in the Sias network. In some cases, values were approximately 15°C higher than normal values. The minimum monthly value of -3.4 °C was recorded by the Cesarò Monte Soro station (Catania) on day 23″.
Below average rainfall in Sicily in April
“The month of April further extended in Sicily a now long series of months with lower than normal rainfall that began last September 2023, which is increasingly seen as 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. The regional average of monthly precipitation was approximately 23 mm, compared to a normal value of 41 mm for the period 2003-2023″. The technicians of the Sicilian agrometeorological information service say so.
No rain in the first part of April
“The phenomena were practically completely absent in the first part of the month, while the three disturbances that occurred in the second part of the month affected the Island only marginally and were characterized by an almost total absence of convective activity, thus producing widespread but quantitatively not significant – add Sias – The regional average number of rainy days was equal to 3.2 compared to a normal value of 6, with a maximum of 8 rainy days recorded by the SIAS Cesarò Monte Soro station (Messina) and a minimum of a single rainy day recorded by the Santa Croce Camerina station (Ragusa). On the Sias network, the maximum monthly accumulation of 78.6 mm was recorded by the San Fratello station (Messina), while the maximum daily accumulation was recorded on day 16 by the Gangi station (Pa) with 27 mm”.
Overall, the scarcity of rainfall, although not having yet taken on the characteristics of long-term drought events in the past, as regards the medium term, increasingly takes on the contours of an extreme climatic anomaly.
Since last September 1st the average rainfall has halved
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 September-April period, with 191.2 mm totalized in 8 months by the SIAS station, appears to have been absolutely among the driest of 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 only lower than the values recorded by the Catania GCOO.MM station. in the period 1968-69, data which is also of very uncertain validity.
