An Arctic vortex is bringing the full brunt of winter to Italy for the first time, weathermen warned. The polar winds are sweeping down the peninsula from north to south bringing cold, snow and icy rain as well as freezing gales, said meteorologist Lorenzo Tedici of the www.iLMeteo.it website.
The swirling wave of icy weather will hit the north and centre first before pelting the south before turning back to the northern Adriatic before the weekend and then heading back south at the weekend to spread snow over low ground, Tedici said. On Wednesday, Campania and Calabria witnessed thunder and lightning and intense and abundant rain.
Snow fell at 400-500 metres in the centre, with moderate falls from Umbria to Abruzzo, while it snowed in the south above 900-1100 metres.
On Thursday the cyclone will return northwards with the whole of the Apennines being dusted with snow from 200 metres in Tuscany to 600 metres in Calabria, while falling intensely on low ground between Emilia-Romagna and southern Veneto. Sardinia will also see its fair share of snow, Tedici said.
On Friday the snow will once more shift southwards to the centre and south with low-altitude snowfall in Romagna and Marche and along the Apennine spine as far south as Calabria over 500 metres. The ‘white lady’ will also be a protagonist in Basilicata, Calabria and Sicily, Tedici said.
Amid the wave of bad weather, a state highway was closed by a landslide near Avellino Wednesday while the River Tanagro broke its banks near Salerno and the Aterno did the same in Abruzzo, flooding regional capital L’Aquila. A car hit a tree on a rain-slick road near Caserta north of Naples, killing a 21-year-old woman.
