Weather

Bad weather in Varese, landslides and flooding

The Veneto Region's Civil Defence has declared a state of orange pre-alert for the Po river due to the flood wave caused by the rainfall. Critical situation and bad weather alert in several regions

23 April 2025[Aggiornato il 23 aprile 2025, ore 22:30]

Persone si riparano dalla pioggia con gli ombrelli. Ansa/Tino Romano

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Key points

Violent hailstorm whitens Campobasso
Huge hailstorm in Marsica. Coldiretti L'Aquila: "Damaged harvests"
Yellow code over north-west Tuscany Thursday 24 April

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A strong disturbance hit the northern part of the province of Varese around 7 p.m. this evening. The worst affected areas are Bregazzana, Sant' Ambrogio and the initial stretch of the Valganna (Varese) between Varese and Induno Olona (Varese).

Mainly the distress calls concern flooding and fallen trees, numerous vehicles of the provincial fire brigade command are at work.

Critical situation in Valganna where a landslide has broken away on the side of the State Road 233 at the height of the caves.

Other minor collapses with stones on the asphalt were reported, and the road network was severely compromised. Difficulties were also reported in Induno Olona with numerous floods recorded in particular in the industrial area. Here, a person was evacuated from the ground floor to the upper floor of his house by the fire brigade. Flooding on the roads has swept away parked cars. The fire brigade is working on a front (increasing) of ten interventions.

Orange alert for the passage of the flood wave in the Po

The Veneto Region's Civil Protection Department has declared a state of orange pre-alert until 4 p.m. tomorrow for hydraulic criticality on the river Po, where the flood wave caused by the rainfall of the past few days is in progress. In view of a new phase of bad weather expected until Friday 25 April with scattered rainfall in the central-western areas of the Pre-Alps and plains, the hydraulic criticality has been raised to a yellow level of attention for the Alto Brenta-Bacchiglione-Alpone basin and for the Basso Brenta-Bacchiglione basin in the stretch of the Muson dei Sassi river.

Violent hailstorm whitens Campobasso

A violent hailstorm hit Molise's capital and neighbouring municipalities in the early afternoon, turning the roads into a white carpet, a scenario similar to a snowfall. Around 2 p.m., hailstones the size of chickpeas fell copiously over Campobasso, causing apprehension among motorists, many of whom sought shelter under overpasses and bridges as they waited for the storm to subside.

The wave of bad weather, widely predicted by the Civil Protection, which had issued a yellow alert for the province of Isernia and part of the province of Campobasso, brought thunder, lightning and a significant drop in temperatures, once again postponing the arrival of spring in the Molise region.

Violent hailstorm in Marsica. Coldiretti L'Aquila: "Damaged harvests"

"A violent hailstorm hit Fucino a couple of hours ago, and in particular the municipalities of San Benedetto Dei Marsi, Cerchio and Pescina, in the Aquila area. The damage recorded concerns onion fields, which were literally destroyed, while there is great concern for fields sown with carrots, whose harvest could be compromised.

Coldiretti L'Aquila, which is verifying the situation to assess the overall extent of the damage, points out that 'the multiplication of extreme events is causing, with the passage of time, a clear tendency towards tropicalisation with a higher frequency of short and intense rainfall and a rapid passage from hot to bad weather with devastating effects on crops'.

Yellow code over north-west Tuscany on Thursday 24 April

The transit of a rapid Atlantic disturbance between the night and early morning of tomorrow, Thursday, will cause scattered rainfall, sometimes in the form of showers or brief thunderstorms, more frequent in the north-west, in Lunigiana, Versilia and the Serchio valley.

For these areas, the Operational Room of the Civil Protection of the Region of Tuscany has issued a yellow code alert for hydrogeological and hydraulic risk of minor watercourses, valid from midnight on Wednesday 23 to 20:00 on Thursday 24 April.

The Civil Protection recommends, as always, to keep up to date on the evolution of the weather conditions and to avoid staying in the areas near the riverbeds. Further details and advice on how to behave, depending on the risk, can be found in the Allerta meteo section of the Regione Toscana website, accessible at the address.

In Milan, yellow weather alert confirmed until 25 April

The Functional Monitoring Centre for Natural Risks of the Lombardy Region has confirmed a yellow (ordinary) weather alert with storm risk (until midnight on Friday 25 April) and with hydrogeological risk (until 6 a.m. on Friday 25 April).

The Centre invites citizens to pay particularattention in the vicinity of areas at risk of flooding of the Seveso and Lambro rivers and underpasses, and not to stand under or near trees and near construction site scaffolding, dehors and tents. The Municipal Operations Centre (Coc) of the Civil Protection will be active to monitor and coordinate any interventions in the city.