Flooded neighborhoods, stopped trains. The nightmare of bad weather returns, after the heat of the last days of last week: the alert is orange in a large part of the region due to critical hydraulic, hydrogeological and thunderstorms, an alert dictated by full of rivers in the province of Bologna and Ravenna and for landslides and full of the smaller courses also in all the other provinces along the Via Emilia. In fact, since the early hours of this morning, thunderstorms have been frequent and with intense rainfall in the Apennines of the Bolognese, Ravenna and Parma areas, moving towards the north-west. But showers and thunderstorms continue to develop in a north-westerly direction, mainly on the Romagna ridge and the medium-high Emilian Apennines and a good part of the Parma area. 70/80 millimeters of rain have already fallen in several areas, with peaks of 100 millimeters in some cases.
Flooding in Romagna
In Romagna the bad weather has begun to lash both the coast, the hills and the Apennines but the greatest phenomena in the early morning of Monday affected the foothills. «Bora and sirocco, a cold wind and a warm wind, are colliding in the Apennines, where at the same time a cloudy band full of rain is rising: the intersection between the winds, which are so different, and these cloudy bands will cause intense rainfall phenomena”, explains Ampro meteorologist Roberto Nanni . The effects are immediately visible: the meteor showers are causing flooding in many residential areas, like San Piero in Bagno in the Province of Forlì Cesena. “In the next few hours, however – explains Nanni – a particular level of attention will have to be paid to the monitoring of rivers and streams because flooding cannot be ruled out”, as is known in the same areas subject to the floods of Spring 2023. «Beyond of all the most intense phenomena are yet to arrive, we expect rain also on the coast in the next few hours, so much so that a further yellow alert has been issued for Tuesday”. Also in San Piero in Bagno the Fire Brigade has already gone into action to prevent the flooding from causing serious damage. It was indeed necessary clean out the drains from which water had started leaking onto the streets
Railway line interrupted
And it is precisely because of the bad weather that from 5.40 this morning the Faenza railway line has been interrupted on the route between Faenza and Marradi. The suspension is linked to the orange alert, as landslides induced by rain could occur along the railway line in that area. The reactivation of the service is expected once the alert has been lifted and after checks on the infrastructure by RFI technicians. As per the procedure agreed with the transport companies and the Tuscany and Emilia-Romagna Regions, bus trips are planned with possible increase in travel times due to road traffic.
The alert extended to the next few hours
According to the Emilia-Romagna Weather Center, for today, June 24, persistent and heavy rains will continue in the regional territory; in the first part of the day the rain will be associated with thunderstorms. At the same time, widespread runoff phenomena are possible, landslides on fragile slopes and rapid rises in hydrometric levels in watercourses in correspondence with heavy rainfall, with possible occupation of the expansion zones of mountain watercourses in the central sector of the region. Finally, although limited, phenomena of erosion of the shoreline due to the rise of wave motion, which could reach two meters in height, cannot be ruled out.
Watch out for landslides
The weather alert will continue to be orange for tomorrow, June 25th, due to hydraulic criticality in the mountains and hills of Bologna. In the rest of the region it will be yellow (also due to thunderstorms). Organized thunderstorms are forecast for Tuesday 25 June, locally also of strong intensity with possible associated damage. Precipitation may generate localized landslides, runoff on the slopes and rapid increases in hydrometric levels in watercourses, close to thresholds 2 in the basins of the central sector of the region.
