Summer has come to a halt as extreme bad weather swept the entire peninsula: in some areas in the south, temperatures dropped from 42 to 18°C.
Hailstorms hit various parts of Brianza damaging corn, pumpkins, tomatoes, peppers and aubergines. Heavy storms and strong winds affected the Monza and Brianza provinces. Between Vimercate and Monza, hailstones as big as nuts hit the crops, while a violent windy storm affected Aicurzio and Ornago.
(Photo: varesenews.it)
"A hailstorm which lasted ten minutes managed to disintegrate my pumpkins. Half my tomatoes have been damaged and I also lost many aubergines and peppers," explained producer Giuliano Fumagalli to varesenews.it Giuliano Fumagalli.
Hailstorms in Pescara
Heavy rain and hail caused a lot of damage, especially in the Manoppello, Alanno, Scafa and Turrivalignani areas.
State of natural disaster required in Basilicata
After the violent tornado that hit a vast area from Lavello to Montemilone and from Palazzo San Gervasio (Potenza) to Irsina and to Grottole (Matera), Coldiretti Basilicata applied for a state of natural disaster to be declared.
14th July 2017 - A tornado hit the territory between Lavello and Melfi causing a lot of damage to crops and infrastructures
The professional organisation pointed out that it is still to early to assess the damage as a vast area was hit. The worse off seem to be Lavello, Montemilone and Palazzo San Gervasio, where many hectares of tomatoes, orchards and vineyard have been destroyed completely. Hundreds of hectares of orchards and olive groves have been damaged and flooded in Irsina and Grottole as well.
"We are currently assessing the damage in the Metaponto and Vulture areas and have already started reporting the damage to the Department of Agircultural and Forestry Policy to see whether conditions are being met to declare the state of natural disaster," explains councillor Luca Braia.
"To make all reports more uniform and facilitate the municipalities affected, the same model we used in January is available."
Calabria, heavy storm in Scilla
After days of wildfire, the rain has hit most of Calabria. A cloudurst affected Scilla (100 millilitres of rain in just one hour), leading to a drop in temperatures of 10°C.
Flash flood Scilla (Calabria)
A producer from Catanzaro posted a photo of a hailstone as big as a €2 coin on Facebook with the caption "poor crops".
In addition, a tornado hit the Messina Strait just off Reggio Calabria. Luckily it didn't touch down and so caused no damage.