After extreme heat, heavy rains expected in Italy

The extreme heat of early July that affected not only Italy, but also a good part of central Europe, is coming to an end : a cold front is arriving from the North-West that will bring a drop in temperatures , more markedly in the North but the effects will also be felt in the Center-South . The risk is that of intense and localized thunderstorms . But it will still be a hot summer . "It will probably arrive on Sunday 6 July in Northern Italy ", Lorenzo Giovannini, atmospheric physicist at the University of Trento, told ANSA. " We will go from a condition well above average to one even below the seasonal average as far as the northern areas are concerned". The arrival of the cold front will most likely also bring with it some more extreme meteorological phenomena such as strong thunderstorms and hailstorms , but localized in limited areas . "There will probably be some intense phenomena as is typical of these contrasts between very hot air and cold air - says Giovannini - but they are very difficult to predict with precision , especially because the summer ones are usually localized, unlike the autumn precipitations which are more widespread". The break from the heat will therefore also affect the Centre-South , although in a less decisive manner , and in general also the rest of Central Europe . It is very likely , however, that it will only be a brief parenthesis : "From the point of view of the trend , it is a cooler interval - underlines the expert from the University of Trento - within a summer that on average will remain quite hot ". The peak of heat reached in recent days is a consequence of the climate change in progress , which is modifying the atmospheric circulation by moving the African anticyclones ever further north , which are warmer and more unstable than the Azores anticyclone that dominated the summer season until a few decades ago. "The summer peaks , which are nothing new for the Mediterranean area, are becoming more frequent and increasingly intense ", highlights Giovannini. "In addition, the Mediterranean Sea is also several degrees above average - concludes Giovannini - and this contributes to accentuating the contrasts when colder air arrives and, consequently, extreme weather phenomena: these are the two faces of climate change ".