Severe weather alert for All Saints' Day: seven regions at risk of torrential downpours.

A new wave of bad weather is hitting Italy on All Saints' Day, Sunday, November 1st, with the Civil Protection issuing a yellow weather alert for seven regions in central and southern Italy: Abruzzo, Basilicata, Calabria, Lazio, Molise, Puglia, and Sicily. The main concerns involve the risk of thunderstorms, hydrogeological hazards, and in Calabria, also hydraulic risks, with widespread and locally intense rainfall that could cause cloudbursts and flooding.

Attention is at its highest for a further deterioration expected from tonight. According to forecasts, Monday, November 2nd will be a day of severe bad weather across all southern regions, with persistent rain and thunderstorms. Between November 2nd and 3rd, the European ECMWF model predicts rainfall accumulations that could exceed 100 mm in the area between Basilicata and Puglia, with heavy rain also expected in northern Calabria and parts of Campania.

The bad weather is accompanied by a further drop in temperatures, with highs in central and northern Italy between 11 and 16°C and in the south between 15 and 20°C. Strong winds from the northern quadrants are expected, especially over the mid-to-upper Adriatic, and rough seas. Snow will fall on the central Apennines and the Alps, generally above 1,500 meters.

The wave of bad weather hitting Italy these days is caused by the arrival of a cold air mass from Northern Europe, which is interacting with a low-pressure system present over the South of the country. This clash between air masses of different temperatures and humidity creates the conditions for intense rainfall, thunderstorms, and a significant drop in temperature—phenomena typical of the transition from autumn to winter.

Civil Protection alerts are activated based on forecast models that monitor the intensity and duration of precipitation, assessing the concrete risks to the territory. 'Hydrogeological risk' refers to the possibility of landslides and ground instability due to water-saturated soil, while 'hydraulic risk' concerns the overflowing of rivers and streams. The fact that the alert in Calabria covers all three types of risk (hydraulic, hydrogeological, and thunderstorms) indicates a particularly critical situation for that region.

The meteorological situation is evolving after a period of relative calm. The expected worsening between November 2nd and 3rd, with rainfall accumulations that could exceed 100 mm in a few hours, represents the most intense phase of this disturbance. Such amounts, if concentrated in a short time, can easily exceed the drainage capacity of the soil and urban systems, leading to widespread critical issues, especially in those areas already vulnerable due to geomorphological characteristics or suboptimal land management.