Severe thunderstorms hit north Italy this weekend, producing severe winds and intense hailstorms.
North Italy is one of European hot spots for severe thunderstorms, and it is living up to its reputation this summer too. An active pattern has been ongoing over the northern Italy region over the past several days. Western flow aloft has been favourable for organized thunderstorms, combining with diurnal thermal lows providing backing winds and an unstable airmass with temperatures above 30 °C and dewpoints above 20 °C to produce severe multicell and supercell thunderstorms.
Supercell with well-developed structure and large wall cloud in the northern Veneto plains. July 14, late afternoon. Photo: Davide Parolin / Serenissima Meteo.
Sunday, July 15th
Severe thunderstorms hit the southern part of Emilia Romagna (EMR) in the mid afternoon, and Veneto in the evening hours. Hail up to 5 cm and locally larger was reported in the area of Parma and Reggio Emilia (EMR). In the evening, several major severe thunderstorms developed in central Veneto region, in the zone between Vicenza, Venice and the Po delta. The storms formed on coastal convergence in moderate easterly Bora winds, combining with moderate to high instability (1000-2000 J/kg MLCAPE).
Saturday, July 14th
Severe thunderstorms hit the parts of Piemonte, Lombardy and Veneto (northwestern and northern Italy) as well as parts of Emilia Romagna on Saturday. Large to very large hail (>5 cm hailstones) was reported, as well as severe downbursts.