It will be a hot Easter in Sicily with temperatures peaking at 32°C. The island will experience an Easter weekend with abnormal heat and red skies, due to the arrival of a massive cloud of sand coming from the Sahara desert. The Department of Civil Protection has launched a pre-alert due to the “Medium” danger for fires in the provinces of Trapani, Agrigento, Palermo and Messina.
Anticipation of summer – According to forecasts, between Holy Saturday and Easter Monday an anticyclone of North African origin will hit Sicily, bringing sunny weather but above all very high temperatures, about 10°C higher than the climatic averages of the period. Peaks of up to 32°C are expected in the internal areas of Catania and Enna between Easter Sunday and Easter Monday. It will also be abnormally hot in the rest of the region, with widespread highs above 25-27°C. The climate will therefore be more similar to summer than to the typical spring mildness.
The Easter weekend will be characterized by the Sirocco, with stormy gusts of up to 100 km/h, which will transport dense flows of desert sand to Italy. Already from Friday the Sicilian skies will begin to turn yellow with the presence of dust in the air.
Saturday and Sunday will be even more accentuated, and according to experts it will be a real “Red Easter”. The satellites have in fact immortalized a large orange cloud approaching the Mediterranean, full of Saharan sand. “Red rain” will be possible especially between Easter and Easter Monday. In particular, the Aeolian Islands and the coastal areas will be hit by the desert cloud brought by intense Libeccio and Scirocco currents.
