February 2012 Cold Wave - Effects Here In North Italy

[Emanuele Cifalino]

Hi everyone I'm not sure if i'm posting in the right section, I think this can be considered " Historic " as I'm talking about a past event...I was unsure about writing here or in the worldwide section...if I made something wrong, forgive me in advice .

I would just like to report the effects of the strong cold wave that hit Europe during the first 10-15 days of February, here in Italy we experienced very cold days and lots of snow...But let's start from the location first...I write from Piacenza - Emilia romagna...probably not many of you know where is it ... It is a Small town of about 100.00 inhabitants more or less, located between Milan and Bologna, in Emilia-Romagna.

It has a quite complicated geography..it's near to the Ligurian Sea, as you can see, but divided from it by the "Appennino" Mountains, which has places up to 1200-1400 meters . Let's say it was NOT one of the areas where the WORST of the snow and cold hit, that was around middle-northern adriatic sea and sorroundings ... but we still had a very intense episode.

It all started in the days between 1st and 2nd february...as shown in the GFS , a depression moved from the Ligurian sea to the adriatic one, thus creating a warmer flux merged with a very cold air mass brought down around the europe by the massive russian high. ( FIRST ATTACHMENT ) This confluence resultend in snowfalls here and in many areas of north and central Italy with very low temperatures. During 1st and 2nd February here the snow has fallen with temperatures from -4° to -1°C, which is really uncommon for this place. Around 10-15 cm cumulated in these first two days of snow, but it was only the beginning....

In the days between 3 and 6 February a new low developed, this time far souther than first one. In this way the very cold air masses that came down in the europe invaded the northern italian regions as well. In the days 4 , 5 and 6 February the Minimum temperatures was lower than -10°C!! Lowest value hit was -15,7°C on february 6, thus breaking the last record-value hit in february 1991 of 14,1° here at Piacenza. The weather in these days was mostly foggy and sunny at times, because of the humidity brought here by the north-eastern winds coming from the adriatic sea, but the snow stopped for a while. But it didn't last for long. On February 7 a new low developed, this time in greece ( SECOND ATTACHMENT ) , producing a mix between a dry north-western flux coming from the Alps and the Humid-northeastern one from the adriatic , as said before. This caused again lots of snow showers on 7 february with temperatures between -9°C (!!!!) and -4°C ... it is very rare to see the snow with such low temperatures here.

A little increase in temperatures occurred on 8 and 9 February, with minimum temperatures of -8°C and -5°c, but this was not the end! On the days between 10 and 12 february a strong cold depression coming from north-east Europe hit right just the north italy ( THIRD ATTACHMENT ) , thus proceeding again further on the mediterranean sea . On the night between 10 and 11 February an uncommon blizzard hit the almost entire Po valley, producing heavy wind gust, snow with temperatures , again, between -4°and -5° and again another decrease in temperatures, that went down to -11° on the 11 february and -14° again on the 12!! In the following days the situation slowly came back to the average...But...well...i leave it to the pictures!!

Here you can find even a video I recorded on February 7 , during a snow shower .....

I hope you enjoy

Greetings,

Emanuele...

Edited April 2, 2012 by Emanuele Cifalino

[Emanuele Cifalino]

Again more pictures of my hometown with the snow can be found here , these are from february 2nd, in the late morning ( the date of my photocamera is messed up :/ )

http://www.facebook....15676212&type=3

Edited April 2, 2012 by Emanuele Cifalino

[95 Degrees]

Again more pictures of my hometown with the snow can be found here , these are from february 2nd, in the late morning ( the date of my photocamera is messed up :/ )

http://www.facebook....15676212&type=3

Hi everyone I'm not sure if i'm posting in the right section, I think this can be considered " Historic " as I'm talking about a past event...I was unsure about writing here or in the worldwide section...if I made something wrong, forgive me in advice .

I would just like to report the effects of the strong cold wave that hit Europe during the first 10-15 days of February, here in Italy we experienced very cold days and lots of snow...But let's start from the location first...I write from Piacenza - Emilia romagna...probably not many of you know where is it ... It is a Small town of about 100.00 inhabitants more or less, located between Milan and Bologna, in Emilia-Romagna.

It has a quite complicated geography..it's near to the Ligurian Sea, as you can see, but divided from it by the "Appennino" Mountains, which has places up to 1200-1400 meters . Let's say it was NOT one of the areas where the WORST of the snow and cold hit, that was around middle-northern adriatic sea and sorroundings ... but we still had a very intense episode.

It all started in the days between 1st and 2nd february...as shown in the GFS , a depression moved from the Ligurian sea to the adriatic one, thus creating a warmer flux merged with a very cold air mass brought down around the europe by the massive russian high. ( FIRST ATTACHMENT ) This confluence resultend in snowfalls here and in many areas of north and central Italy with very low temperatures. During 1st and 2nd February here the snow has fallen with temperatures from -4° to -1°C, which is really uncommon for this place. Around 10-15 cm cumulated in these first two days of snow, but it was only the beginning....

In the days between 3 and 6 February a new low developed, this time far souther than first one. In this way the very cold air masses that came down in the europe invaded the northern italian regions as well. In the days 4 , 5 and 6 February the Minimum temperatures was lower than -10°C!! Lowest value hit was -15,7°C on february 6, thus breaking the last record-value hit in february 1991 of 14,1° here at Piacenza. The weather in these days was mostly foggy and sunny at times, because of the humidity brought here by the north-eastern winds coming from the adriatic sea, but the snow stopped for a while. But it didn't last for long. On February 7 a new low developed, this time in greece ( SECOND ATTACHMENT ) , producing a mix between a dry north-western flux coming from the Alps and the Humid-northeastern one from the adriatic , as said before. This caused again lots of snow showers on 7 february with temperatures between -9°C (!!!!) and -4°C ... it is very rare to see the snow with such low temperatures here.

A little increase in temperatures occurred on 8 and 9 February, with minimum temperatures of -8°C and -5°c, but this was not the end! On the days between 10 and 12 february a strong cold depression coming from north-east Europe hit right just the north italy ( THIRD ATTACHMENT ) , thus proceeding again further on the mediterranean sea . On the night between 10 and 11 February an uncommon blizzard hit the almost entire Po valley, producing heavy wind gust, snow with temperatures , again, between -4°and -5° and again another decrease in temperatures, that went down to -11° on the 11 february and -14° again on the 12!! In the following days the situation slowly came back to the average...But...well...i leave it to the pictures!!

Here you can find even a video I recorded on February 7 , during a snow shower .....

I hope you enjoy

Greetings,

Emanuele...

Hi everyone I'm not sure if i'm posting in the right section, I think this can be considered " Historic " as I'm talking about a past event...I was unsure about writing here or in the worldwide section...if I made something wrong, forgive me in advice .

I would just like to report the effects of the strong cold wave that hit Europe during the first 10-15 days of February, here in Italy we experienced very cold days and lots of snow...But let's start from the location first...I write from Piacenza - Emilia romagna...probably not many of you know where is it ... It is a Small town of about 100.00 inhabitants more or less, located between Milan and Bologna, in Emilia-Romagna.

It has a quite complicated geography..it's near to the Ligurian Sea, as you can see, but divided from it by the "Appennino" Mountains, which has places up to 1200-1400 meters . Let's say it was NOT one of the areas where the WORST of the snow and cold hit, that was around middle-northern adriatic sea and sorroundings ... but we still had a very intense episode.

It all started in the days between 1st and 2nd february...as shown in the GFS , a depression moved from the Ligurian sea to the adriatic one, thus creating a warmer flux merged with a very cold air mass brought down around the europe by the massive russian high. ( FIRST ATTACHMENT ) This confluence resultend in snowfalls here and in many areas of north and central Italy with very low temperatures. During 1st and 2nd February here the snow has fallen with temperatures from -4° to -1°C, which is really uncommon for this place. Around 10-15 cm cumulated in these first two days of snow, but it was only the beginning....

In the days between 3 and 6 February a new low developed, this time far souther than first one. In this way the very cold air masses that came down in the europe invaded the northern italian regions as well. In the days 4 , 5 and 6 February the Minimum temperatures was lower than -10°C!! Lowest value hit was -15,7°C on february 6, thus breaking the last record-value hit in february 1991 of 14,1° here at Piacenza. The weather in these days was mostly foggy and sunny at times, because of the humidity brought here by the north-eastern winds coming from the adriatic sea, but the snow stopped for a while. But it didn't last for long. On February 7 a new low developed, this time in greece ( SECOND ATTACHMENT ) , producing a mix between a dry north-western flux coming from the Alps and the Humid-northeastern one from the adriatic , as said before. This caused again lots of snow showers on 7 february with temperatures between -9°C (!!!!) and -4°C ... it is very rare to see the snow with such low temperatures here.

A little increase in temperatures occurred on 8 and 9 February, with minimum temperatures of -8°C and -5°c, but this was not the end! On the days between 10 and 12 february a strong cold depression coming from north-east Europe hit right just the north italy ( THIRD ATTACHMENT ) , thus proceeding again further on the mediterranean sea . On the night between 10 and 11 February an uncommon blizzard hit the almost entire Po valley, producing heavy wind gust, snow with temperatures , again, between -4°and -5° and again another decrease in temperatures, that went down to -11° on the 11 february and -14° again on the 12!! In the following days the situation slowly came back to the average...But...well...i leave it to the pictures!!

Here you can find even a video I recorded on February 7 , during a snow shower .....

I hope you enjoy

Greetings,

Emanuele...

Thanks man, it was a great cold spell/wave for Europe, and Italy was hit rather hard, I remember Milano/Torino having observed snow on common ocassions as well as Roma during early feb, good to hear your story.