This is the highest average figure of the past decade, environmental group Legambiente said on Friday, stressing that “Italy has become ever subjected to extreme climate events” because of human-caused climate-change.
Legambiente said in its latest Climate City Observatory report that from 2010 up to July 2022 there have been 1,318 extreme weather events in Italy, with the most significant impacts having taken place in 710 Italian municipalities.
In these years, the group said, there have been 516 instances of flooding due to intense rain, 367 cases of damage caused by tornadoes, 157 cases of damage caused by rain to infrastructure, 123 cases of rivers breaking their banks with consequent damage to the countryside and crops, 63 cases of hail damage, 55 cases of prolonged drought, 55 landslides after intense rain, 22 cases of damage to historic heritage, and 17 cases of extreme temperatures in cities or in wider heat waves.
The report states that the climate crisis is being “incomprehensibly underestimated” in the current campaign for the September 25 general election in Italy.
In 2022, extreme climate events have reached the level of “code red”, the report said. “Those who are bidding to govern the country for the next five years should explain what solutions they want to implement to tackle the climate crisis, one of the principal planetary emergencies that risks bringing the entire planet to its knees”.
Torrid weather conditions continue across Italy’s regions, with a so-called ‘water bomb’ hitting the northern Emilia-Romagna city of Ferrara, and torrential storms killing two people in Tuscany on Thursday.
