Weather: extreme events have more than doubled in Italia since 2019
According to data analysed by Italy for Climate, hailstorms have almost tripled in six years
Weather: whilst Italy is grappling with exceptionally high temperatures and increasingly frequent heatwaves, the data show that the climate crisis is manifesting itself not only through extreme heat but also through increasingly severe weather events.
According to Italy for Climate’s analysis of data from the European Severe Weather Database, published in the annual report “The 10 Key Climate Trends in Italy”, the total number of extreme weather events recorded in the country has risen from around 1,000 in 2019 to over 2,300 in 2026. This steady increase confirms that the impacts of climate change are now a tangible reality and are becoming increasingly widespread across the entire peninsula.
Hailstorms have almost tripled
Among the phenomena showing the sharpest increase are severe hailstorms. In Italia, the number of incidents rose from 281 recorded in 2019 to 777 recorded in 2025 – almost three times as many in just six years.
The northern regions have been the hardest hit: a total of 2,668 severe hailstorms were recorded in Veneto, Lombardy and Piedmont between 2019 and 2025, accounting for more than half of all such events recorded across the country during the same period. However, the growing geographical spread of these phenomena shows that no area can any longer consider itself safe.
The climate crisis
The apparent contrast between record temperatures and extreme weather events such as hailstorms is not an anomaly, but rather one of the most typical manifestations of the climate crisis. As highlighted by Italy for Climate in the report “Too much or too little. Water in Italy in a Changing Climate’, presented during Venice Climate Week, a warmer atmosphere retains greater amounts of energy and moisture, creating conditions conducive to the development of increasingly intense and destructive events.
