Extreme weather events register 135% increase in Italy
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Italy suffered 122 extreme weather events in the first five months of 2023, a 135% increase on the 52 registered in the equivalent period last year, Legambiente said in a report released this week on Wold Environment Day.
Scientists say that extreme weather events like heat waves, supercharged storms, flooding and droughts are becoming more frequent and more intense because of climate change caused by human greenhouse-gas emissions.
The environmental association said the report was a “clear message” to the government of Premier Giorgia Meloni about the need to tackle the climate crisis.
The report said flooding caused by torrential rain was the most frequent of the extreme events, with 30 cases in the January-May period this year, compared to 16 in the first five months of 2022.
It said Emilia Romagna, Sicily, Piedmont, Lazio, Lombardy and Tuscany were the regions hit hardest.
Recent disasters linked to extreme weather include the flash flooding that claimed 15 lives in Emilia Romagna last month and last November’s landslide on the island of Ischia that killed 12 people.
An aerial view of the devastation caused by the landslide in Casamicciola, Ischia Island, Italy, 27 November 2022. EPA-EFE/Ciro Fusco
