11157 Italy Battered By Bad Weather

Italy, France and Spain are all having terrible weather and big storms coming from the North-West, with snow below normal levels. And it does not look as if it is going to stop immediately. The cold front mentioned in the article is the one that we are enduring right now, and it is really cold. In our region of Spain it has been raining, practically non-stop, for the past month and a half. And all those fronts make their way into France and then on to Italy. The high wind is another big problem.

Coming over for some snow in 3 weeks time - can't wait

.

Snowing here and forecast to continue, but with intermittent rain, for three more days...
The lane at the back of my place is like this at the moment and the valley to the east is 'snowy'... LOL!

I will stop complaining immediately about the pouring rain here near Lago Trasimeno, (incidently this valuable rainwater cannot seep into the lake from the land because a "concrete girdle" has been constructed around the perimiter of the lake so it remains in crisis). Having seen Carole's photos of nasty brrrrr snow,

Noble, we've just come in from lunch in Castiglione and commented that although many of the surrounding low lying fields are flooded, the lake didn't look as full as we would have expected yet it relies solely on rainwater, doesn't it? It isn't fed by any rivers?
Apart from Monday and a few hours of sunshine on Tuesday, weather continues to be wetter than ever remembered around here. Though the farmers are happy....very.

Sadly there are very serious problems with the water level of Lago Trasimeno. According to expert advice, unless the rain falls directly into the lake from above, there is very little chance of much water seeping into it because of a concrete "girdle" around the lake. In the Spring we hope to start a website and draw attention to the problems. In the meantime, mainly pig farmers are extracting more water from the lake than water coming in from rainfall.
Here when out walking, we see mini cascades in the woods which we rarely saw this time last winter...hoorah!

How interesting. Look, I'm not a scientist but the surface area of the lake is quite large, the rain has been lashing down for virtually weeks, surely a good proportion of it has to land directly in the lake itself? And know what you mean about mini torrents and waterfalls appearing in odd places, yes, we've seen so many in the last few days. Plus several gravelled tracks (ungraded roads) rendered impassable unless you have 4 wheel drive. Still, the farmers/agriculturalists are delighted by the much needed rain.

[quote=alan h;105296]Coming over for some snow in 3 weeks time - can't wait
.[/quote]

It is superb, I assure you! Went on Wednesday, deep snow on most pistes :bigergrin: - the piste workers didn't seem to be bothering with bashing but nobody minded..

Whilst the snow is very beautiful and actually saved our bacon the first year that we opened, I truly hope we don't get as much as we did four years ago! Our car park was so deep we have to dig out the landrover discovery.

I would add a photo, but can't find a way of doing it? Any help gratefully received.

Pam assuming the file size is reasonably small and with the right filename extension ie jpeg or jpg then in a reply window click on the paper clip icon, then from the pop up winnow, click on Choose File then clic on Upload.

The pictures of the weather on today's (Friday) TV news are horrendous. The Tiber, in Rome, and the Arno, in Florence are touching the tops of the arches on the bridges. The rain in these central areas seems to be set in until at least Tuesday.

Here is a snap of the Ponte di Ripetta in Rome, where the water is 11.8m above normal.

[ATTACH]2281[/ATTACH]

Calabria , (on the Ionian coast), saw some tremendous seas, and Sicily and Sardinia were also experiencing flooding and high winds.

Thanks for the photo Charles. Sadly for us in the Lago Trasimeno area, the water gushing along the roadside gullies and down from our hill top villages, all goes in to the overflowing Tiber and not into the lake where it is desperately needed.

[quote=Charles Phillips;105413]
Here is a snap of the Ponte di Ripetta in Rome, where the water is 11.8m above normal.[/quote]

11.8 [B]m[/B] above normal? :wideeyed:

The landrover discovery at villa sibillini

Thanks Sally, I always wondered how you did that!

Mama mia!!!

[quote=juliancoll;105434]11.8 [B]m[/B] above normal? :wideeyed:[/quote]

Well, actually what ANSA said is that the Tiber at Porta di Ripetta is "at 11.8m". Some of this will be tidal, but I presume 'normal' is something near to zero slm.

Here is a link to a story wth a nice pic of a boat crashed under a bridge, (there is a reference to 11.8 metres at the bottom of para 4.)

[url=http://www.ansa.it/opencms/export/site/visualizza_fdg.html_843551657.html]ANSA.it - TEVERE: ALEMANNO, ONDA CRITICA TRA LE 20 E LE 24[/url]

[quote=juliancoll;105434]11.8 [B]m[/B] above normal? :wideeyed:[/quote]

Yes that does seem rather high doesn't it...
11.8m = [B]38.7[/B] feet!!!

WOW!:eeeek:

[quote=juliancoll;105434]11.8 [B]m[/B] above normal? :wideeyed:[/quote]

Yes that does seem rather high doesn't it...
11.8m = [B]38.7[/B] feet!!!

WOW!:eeeek:

It's surely got to include the normal height PLUS flood surge... giving a total depth of 11.8m

I remember that bridge as I used to go to the Methodist Church opposite the Castel Sant'Angelo. The river was normally that colour (!) but I don't ever recall seeing it that high.

the rome bridge is making quite a story and it topped out at around 13 metres i think...its hard to keep up with it... the civil protection guy also had words about the boat owners who since rome has been on flood alert for quite some time had been told to secure their boats carefully and with extra ties... those that didn't have caused major problems because they have blocked the water flow under the bridges after they broke loose... they were called stupid idiots by him on the public news.... quite strong words...although most probably the guy...who seems to attend all major problems relating to natural disasters here has most probably not had much sleep in the last few days as he moved from snow problems in the north to rain problems all down the med coast...

this morning the worst had passed ... and there were reports showing that levels in the past have reached 17 metres... this is apparently the disaster cut off point ... if it gets to that level then rome gets flooded...

weather reports for the week ahead show continuous snow in the north... in the alps.. a small break this weekend with it all starting to rain again till Wednesday.... then clearing up for a couple more days... snow above 600 meters in the apennines... rather unsettled really...

another bad problem at the moment is the amount of snow up north ...2 metres above the 1000 metre mark... until it settles and attaches with super cold weather the problem at the moment are avalanches... and again generally stupid people skiing off piste as they say... several people died last weekend and there has been more snow since... and more snow due...

finally and pretty good news for all ...both travellers and people that live here is that the Christmas period is supposed to be blessed with a fairly settled high pressure period... so plenty of snow already and skiing should therefore be certain... but travel should be a lot easier...

the forecasts here as a general view seem to be fairly good if you use the air force based reports... ok locally someone might get rain instead of sun... but generally they are reasonably accurate i would say... also if you keep up to date with either italian news or papers, especially local radio and tv the civil protection group provides early warning of difficult situations that are predicted... its a pretty good service here, they have a website ...and there own detailed weather report system ...in italian... sometimes the problem regarding those interested in viewing weather and their accuracy can be put down to using the commercial more general forecasting systems ... i believe if its truly essential for you... Italy has a pretty well set up prediction system... and for sure a very well organised emergencey response system

A lot of foul weather throughout the UK has made the news headlines today. Hopefully it will ease in time for Christmas travel plans.

A useful link to an avalanche bulletin for my area which shows the danger level going from3/5 to 4/5 (!) on Sunday. I'd imagine other alpine areas would be similar. Having so much snow so early means it hasn't really consolidated. The depth is excellent but the cohesion isn't. I've told my Mum I'm putting my Christmas money towards an avalanche bleep...

http://notes2.regione.vda.it/DBWeb/bollnivometeo/bollnivometeo.nsf/vista_i/$first?OpenDocument&L=_i

http://notes1.regione.vda.it/DBWeb/bollnivometeo/bollnivometeo.nsf/vista_i/$first?OpenDocument&L=_i

(I don't know why that didn't show up as a direct clickable link Sue so copy/paste instead)

Well, the copy and paste didn't work - not sure why, but anybody interested - those are valid links so do a copy/paste yourselves... sorry.

[quote=sueflauto;105589]Well, the copy and paste didn't work - not sure why, but anybody interested - those are valid links so do a copy/paste yourselves... sorry.[/quote]

This one does work Sue....

[URL="http://notes1.regione.vda.it/dbweb/bollnivometeo/bollnivometeo.nsf/vista_e/$first?OpenDocument&L=_e&"][B]>Snow/avalanch report - Val d'Aosta<[/B][/URL]

The link I used here was:
http://notes1.regione.vda.it/dbweb/bollnivometeo/bollnivometeo.nsf/vista_e/$first?OpenDocument&L=_e&

Well I clicked on Carole's link, and yes the page appeared. I then copied the address and I got this which still doesn't then appear as a clickable link here. http://notes1.regione.vda.it/dbweb/bollnivometeo/bollnivometeo.nsf/vista_e/$first?OpenDocument&L=_e&

Another one of life's unsolved mysteries for me. lol.

Bad Weather Returns To Italy

Third major pre- winter storm in less than a month

(ANSA) - Rome, December 15 - After a brief lull at the weekend, Italy on Monday found itself caught in its third major pre-winter storm in less than a month and there were renewed fears over major flooding, including in Rome.

[url=http://www.ansa.it/site/notizie/awnplus/english/news/2008-12-15_115286460.html]ANSA.it - News in English - Bad weather returns to Italy[/url]

Well it's absolutely p***ing it down in Puglia now, and has been all day - black as night out there.:sad::Dancing_peevedoff:

Hah! but we've had a glorious day here, at long last, with lovely sunshine. Was out walking in the Val d'Orcia and can't remember it ever looking so beautiful in mid December.

For me it's been cold, grey, miserable and peeing-down. Beautiful snow on the mountains, but not too much by the lake except for last Wednesday. Yesterday was bright sunshine, clear blue sky and pleasantly warm ....... but then, I had come back to England the day before.