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Wave of bad weather causes damage in Rome and northern Italy

The Local Italy
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Wave of bad weather causes damage in Rome and northern Italy
Flash floods in Treviso, where a canal burst its banks. Photo: Italian Fire Service

After a scorching weekend, Italy experienced a wave of storms and rainfall across many parts of the country on Monday evening, with the extreme weather set to continue on Tuesday.

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The storm battered Rome in the evening, with a tree falling directly on one of the sentry boxes outside the Quirinale Palace, the seat of the president. The police officer stationed inside the box was unharmed, according to Repubblica

There were also multiple interventions by firefighters in the areas around Florence and Pisa in Tuscany, where there were around 30 cases of trees falling due to strong winds. In one case, the toppling tree crushed a vehicle, but there were no injuries to the driver or bystanders. 

In the Marche region, a violent hailstorm lasting around half an hour caused widespread damage and a series of electricity blackouts. Photos shared on social media showed that the unusually large hailstones had caused dents in vehicles and even roofs of houses.

And a canal burst its banks in the Treviso area of Veneto, prompting firefighters to tackle flood damage in local houses and other buildings. Part of the walls at the historic Veneto building Villa di Maser also collapsed due to the flooding, local media reported.

READ ALSO: Rome's trees are falling: Toppling pine crushes taxi in latest incident

During the night, the thunderstorms moved south to regions including Puglia, Molise, and Campania, with further disturbances forecast throughout Tuesday.

The Civil Protection Department placed several regions on yellow alert due to weather on Tuesday: Veneto, eastern Emilia-Romagna, most of Tuscany and Marche, Umbria, Abruzzo, Molise, and parts of Tuscany, Puglia and Calabria.

In particular, it warned of heavy rainfall, hail and thunderstorms, and strong winds in the affected areas, with particularly strong gusts across Calabria and Sicily. However, weather in the north of the country should stabilize from Tuesday morning, with calmer, warm weather forecast for most of Italy for the second half of the week.

After an extremely warm start to the summer, the weather in Italy has been volatile over recent weeks. Storms earlier in the month saw deadly flash floods and lightning struck over 2,000 times in two hours in the northern region of Trentino-South Tyrol.

Italy is not the only area experiencing extreme weather over the summer, with a heatwave sweeping across Europe. Two Italian water bombers have been dispatched to Sweden to help tackle multiple wildfires affecting the Scandinavian country following weeks of unusual heat.

 

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