Weather...

Think I would like a sticky for this subject (being English and all). Yes I know it's global warming and all (ok perhaps another stick that one), but really is everyone having drops in temperature from mid twenties to 10c....  Someone actually said they were out today and the car was saying 5c outside... Come on we need our plants put in for summer....!     

There is a front coming from the Atlantic that will hit the Western area of Spain by Friday. It would mean cooler temperatures and rain. That front should move eastward and should hit Italy by Monday or Tuesday. So I would not bet on warm weather for the time being. Sorry, Steve    I can always give you advanced weather warning... Whatever happens in Spain, will hit Italy 2-3 days later...

Gala Placidia wrote:There is a front coming from the Atlantic that will hit the Western area of Spain by Friday. It would mean cooler temperatures and rain. That front should move eastward and should hit Italy by Monday or Tuesday. So I would not bet on warm weather for the time being. Sorry, Steve    I can always give you advanced weather warning... Whatever happens in Spain, will hit Italy 2-3 days later...

Sorry Gala, but think your advance warning is wrong this time...  Being English and fanatical about the weather I've watched Il Meteo every day (and several times a day) since we have been here,  they are very rarely wrong and normally only in extreme circumstances where it is so changeable it is too hard to predict... We will have sunshine and warmer weather by Friday.... But by then I can't by veg plants as most will be closed, hence a venture out tomorrow in the rain....

Well, wait and see what happens on Tuesday. In any case, at this time of the year, extreme weather would be quite unlikely, or unlucky. Next week will give you a better idea and by May, it should be fine.. hopefully.  

Gala Placidia wrote:........., at this time of the year, extreme weather would be quite unlikely, or unlucky. .....

The weather here is extreme by nature, due to the surrounding mountains facing out to the sea (inverted "C" shape) and I'm no longer surprised by any of it, perhaps now and then a little perturbed at the results...  

Yes, the mountains seem to rule everything and it is extremely hard to forecast what the weather is going to be like. What we have noticed is that, in most cases, and providing winds keep on blowing from the North or Northwest, storms coming from the Atlantic will enter the Iberian Peninsula from Galicia, then, move along the Cantabrian Mountains and the Bay of Biscay to continue along the Pyrenees and then on to the Alps, entering Italy about a couple of days later. This happens all the time, unless there is a storm around the British Isles coupled with northerly winds...and then, sooner or later, we all suffer the consequences. In the case of Italy, there are so many microclimates that it is better to use a crystal ball to forecast... 

... like you say Gala, this time we shall see... It will be warmer here I can a sure you...

In south Sicily - further south than Tunis, it's 6 degrees at the moment.  AND ITS NOT FUNNY ANY MORE

yeah, i thought that one of the few beneits of getting older was that one can leave meteophobia behind one...
i have lived in a sub appenine area in central italy for over twenty years and can safely say that in general easter is usually schifosa in terms of weather...the very first year it snowed at easter after a nice morning, and most years it's been ..fairly cold...often wet...sometimes snow..generally variable..in a nearby village there's a marker sign of an immense snowfall if i'm not mistaken around 27th april 1.5metres+ in the 19  century ...it's still too early around here to rush around planting (with the exception of grrenhouses/poly tunnels etc the only people doing that are ex pats...this is not the uk...

We had no illusions as to the possibility of snow in April as historical records are available these days for every little place, including Abruzzo. We also made sure we visited the place at different times of the year before we bought and indeed encountered snow on one of these visits in the month of April.... It's the dammed immense drop in temperature that gets me... Of course I should have consulted the data more carefully to note the variation in temperatures they reported.... Ah well too  late now....
As for planting veg, I take a lot of advice from the Italians, but realise they are ultra conservative and don't have everything right. So I take some pleasure seeing them trying things we have done that they thought mad... Planting before April is out is one of them and I pleased to say been very successful so far, despite hail 2-3cm in size last year and plants in 10-15cm of water the year before. As a precaution we have two veg plots and plant half now and the rest the 1st or 2nd week in May, weather permitting of course. We live at just under 400m on a hill, so not particularly sheltered....

well I too the dogs out first thing and was greeted by a chilly 4'C, but there was ne'er a cloud to be seen, just a lovely expanse of blue. So coat on and out.

We missed a wedding of a friend this week - in the lake district Monday... The bride was blushing!! Sun burnt!!!! Wish we had made it over  in more ways than one     

30C predicted in my neck of the woods at the weekend.    

sounds like pool weather!  you lucky people.

we grow a lot of tomatoes usually reckon on about 500 plants which are normally in by mid may....this year at the end of may i had to transfer the little plants from their polystyrene trays to pots..which our housekeeper thought strange...no sooner had i finished when we had a half hour hail storm and torrential rain which at best would have covered them in mud if not detroyed or washed away...so here i am on the 3rd of june putting them in the ground on the first decent day for a month...it's tough being a rustic!

The weather this summer in Italy remains changeable - and potentially fatal: https://uk.news.yahoo.com/flash-floods-tear-refrontolo-festival-italy-killing-four-095625059.html#07xxpWh

Looking Here , if this is coming South as they normally do, then there is more to come either later today or tomorrow. It does seem to be over the whole of Europe, dare I say except the UK (who have had some of it) and Spain. Someone said the radio here quoted the worst summer in Italy since 1845...

The weather is responsible for devastating my tomatoes this year.....

... could be a few more tomatoes going with these passing thunderstorms, 10 minutes of gale force winds, black as I've ever seen it and continuous thunder, torrential rain. Then the sun is back out, for now... Looking at the blitzortung live data, more is on the way and spreads across all of central Italy.

What a night/day!   Fearsome winds with gusts variously reported to be 180-200kph.  Very damaging.  Luckily, here on the Tuscany/Liguria border, we only had one tree in the garden snap in two.

Are you okay?

ghiro wrote:What a night/day!   Fearsome winds with gusts variously reported to be 180-200kph.  Very damaging.  Luckily, here on the Tuscany/Liguria border, we only had one tree in the garden snap in two.Are you okay?

Well our arrival back in Italy was superb with 19c one day and lots of sunshine, then yesterday it went blue tit up! We lost electric eventually after many, many a small cut for over 12 hours - went to bed before 9 as it was off.... However the forecast 90cm of snow did not manage to lie, although it did try very hard all day and an inch stuck to the entire North facing wall, most odd to see... The wind was by far the worst thing, Il Meteo telling us it was 69kph max, no way! Luckily it caused no damage, but suspect it was the reason we lost power, along with very wet snow. Odd as not more than 1-2k away (higher hils) there was a blanket of snow, even 500m away there was a covering whereas we had none. Now back to sunshine, but still very cold, thank goodness for the wood burner that needs no electric....

Total Devastation here in Bagni Di Lucca, Internet just back after 6 days, same with phone lines, no electricity for 2 days and Vodafone still not working. They reckon on 40% of all the trees in the area blown down, together with at least 50% suffering damage to roofs and no money for the clear up !!!
Rumours of an emergency fund beoing set up for this area of Lucca.

I wanted to cry when I saw the pictures of the park in Bagni , it is so sad.

Amazing what a hundred or so feet can do. We too have people higher up with power and water off since last Thursday (water off really not good), yet other than a paltry 22 hour electric cut and the land line still down (always is) everything else is fine.  Hope you all get sorted soon, I thought Tuscany was supposed to miss it all...

So very sorry to hear about the situation in BdL Flip.