Within a matter of hours, the extreme heat that had been tormenting northern Italy for weeks gave way to exceptional rainfall, flooding and a sharp drop in temperatures. The regions hit hardest were Liguria, Lombardy and the northern part of Tuscany.
The disturbance that swept in was "fuelled" by a marine heatwave that pushed the Mediterranean above 33 degrees Celsius off the Spanish island of Majorca, according to data recorded by a buoy operated by the Aemet meteorological agency (source in Italian). When the first flow of cooler, more unstable air met the hot air masses lingering over northern regions, together with the humidity picked up from the sea, it triggered the first extreme events of the late-summer period.
In Liguria, 40,000 lightning strikes in 24 hours: train and Ventimiglia station hit, flooding in Tigullio
Liguria was the first to bear the brunt. According to the Civil Protection agency, around 40,000 lightning strikes hit the region. One of them, on the morning of Thursday 20 August, hit a Frecciabianca train that had left Genoa station bound for Rome, forcing the convoy to stop and passengers to disembark.
In the regional capital, the storms caused major damage above all to seaside bathing facilities, particularly in the stretch between Cogoleto and Arenzano, where cabins, sunbeds and parasols were swept away by the force of the wind.
