The last few days have seen record rainfall. In Lombardy, Veneto, Emilia Romagna. We go from one weather alert to another, the last one in Milan starting from midnight on Monday. It was a week of severe bad weather in northern Italy: between storms, water bombs, hailstorms and wind storms, which in recent days even overturned a freight train in the Mantua area, in Lombardy Coldiretti counted over seventy extreme events. A situation that is sending the sector into a tailspin. The countryside ended up under water, preventing farmers from entering the fields and the cities were also flooded, with damage to cellars, buildings and roads. The Lombardy capital has been dealing with rain for a week: according to experts it had not rained for 170 years as it did last Wednesday, when between 100 and 120 millimeters of water fell in a few hours, the same amount that generally falls in a month. Usually in May, the rainiest month of the year, Milan receives an average of around 95 millimeters of rain. The situation in the Modena area is still difficult, hit by an intense storm, particularly in Vignola, Savignano sul Panaro, Monteveglio, Bazzano where the streets turned into rivers and the waterways swelled in a short time. In some municipalities the schools remained closed, in Formica many families without electricity. Here too, two months’ worth of rain fell in three hours.
Increasingly frequent weather anomalies that have to do with global warming and greater evaporation of sea water which creates humidity in the air. The storm that affected the province of Pavia on Monday evening was particularly violent. After last week’s floods, however, the situation on the rivers is improving. The Seveso and Lambro are under control, the level is high but there is no longer a risk of flooding. Even though in Monza the park was closed as a precaution. However, the alert went from red to yellow, both for the hydrogeological and hydraulic risk.
In Veneto, the governor Luca Zaia is waiting for the end of the wave of bad weather that continues to affect the region to start counting the damage. The rain continued to fall incessantly yesterday on areas hit by the rainfall of recent days, when 230-240 millimeters of rain had fallen in six hours, making it difficult for already soaked soil to absorb water. In the Vicenza area yesterday there were peaks in rainfall that exceeded 150 millimeters of rain. It was the Caldogno and Montebello lamination basins that released the waters. The hydrogeological criticality in the Lower Brenta Bacchiglione basin remains confirmed.
The situation of the embankments continues to be delicate, with particular attention on the Muson dei Sassi.
