2022 will go down in history as the hottest year ever for Italy. The temperatures in December are in fact in line with the trend of the first 11 months of the year, already highlighted by the Institute for Atmospheric and Climate Sciences of the National Research Council (Cnr-Isac). The climatologist said so Bernard Gozzini, director of the Lamma-Cnr Consortium, adding that the record for 2022 concerns both maximum and average temperatures. And it refers to the period from 1800, that is, from when meteorological surveys began, to today. For low temperatures, however, the record year was 2018 which is the second hottest year ever after 2022. In the world, however, 2016 was the hottest year, preceding 2020 and 2019.
Spring temperatures on New Year’s Eve
In Italy, but not only, the trend of these holidays is confirming the anomaly: after a decidedly mild Christmas with little rain, December 31st and New Year’s Eve will have more spring than winter temperatures. In fact, Gozzini explained, “temperatures 5-6 degrees above the average and locally even a few degrees more will be recorded, while it shouldn’t rain”. “The only regions to make an exception – added the climatologist – are Liguria and in part Versilia and Lunigiana, where only the rainfall forecast for New Year’s Eve can occur”.
Fog in the Po Valley
The only meteorological risk for the end of the year is fog, which could form in particular in the Po valley and on the Adriatic coast, but also, albeit to a lesser extent, on the Tyrrhenian coast. Fog that has already produced inconvenience at the Abruzzo airport: the three flights that should have landed in breaking latest news yesterday evening – the Ryanair ones from London Stansted and Bergamo and the Ita one arriving from Milan Linate – were diverted to Fiumicino airport, due to the prohibitive weather conditions.
He jet streams
The record heat also recorded in these holidays in Italy (which also affects several other European countries), has similarities with the frost that has hit the eastern United States in recent days, so much so that the two phenomena are considered two sides of the same coin . “They are in fact the consequences – Gozzini specified – of the so-called jet-stream, the natural circulation of winding air which crosses the entire planet at 9-12 km above sea level, influencing the positioning of the high and low pressure systems. specific case the intensity of the jet-stream may have been influenced, in turn, by climate change, resulting in very low temperatures both in the case of frost in the United States and in the Scandinavian peninsula due to the cold air transported at those latitudes; and mild temperatures in the Mediterranean basin due to the call of air of North African origin, thus substantially dividing the Mediterranean basin in two from a thermal point of view”. The curve, concluded the climatologist, moving with a sinuous trend leads to the location of the high and low pressure centers, thus determining the weather conditions at a local level.