According to a report from Italy’s leading environmental association, there was nearly one extreme weather event per day in the peninsula in 2024.
Italy is well-positioned to measure the effects of climate change: 351 extreme events (floods, heavy rains, hailstorms, prolonged drought episodes) in 2024, according to the count by the environmental association Legambiente. Beyond the numbers, what matters is the long-term trend. Although the number of events has slightly decreased compared to 2023, which was marked by monstrous floods in Emilia-Romagna, over the past ten years, the number of such events has almost increased sixfold, according to the association.
What is increasing the most are droughts and floods. The report describes a country split in two: in the north, too much water at times, while the south suffers from a severe lack, particularly in Sicily, which experienced a terrible year of drought. There were slightly fewer extreme weather events in the central part of the country, except for Rome.
The summer of 2024 was the third hottest ever recorded in Italy, following 2023 and 2022, almost two degrees above the average since the early 90s. There was also heat in the mountains: to reach the « thermal zero » (the altitude at which the temperature drops to zero), one had to climb more than 5,200 meters in the Piedmont region on the hottest day.
An « extremization » of the climate in Italy
The country is experiencing a « punching ball effect, » explains a climatologist. Previously, air circulated from west to east; now, it follows a south-to-north axis. Very hot African anticyclones coming from the south bring drought, and when they descend, they meet cold air currents. This contrast leads to torrential rains.
Among the adaptation measures taken is a new law on insurance. Because all of this obviously comes with a cost. The damage from the floods in Emilia-Romagna in 2023 is estimated between eight and ten billion euros. It is estimated that only 5% of businesses are covered for such risks. Starting in 2025, it will be mandatory.
