Winter begins with the "Solstice storm": strong winds also in Cagliari

A violent storm is the calling card of winter. From today the days are getting longer but the stormy winds have made their appearance.

The first damage was recorded in Cagliari with collapsed trees and overturned bins. From today, and until the emergency ends - informs the Municipality - the city parks and cemeteries will remain closed. However, the Park of the former Pirri glassworks and the Garden under the walls remain open, under constant monitoring.

Antonio Sanò, founder of the site www.iLMeteo.it, confirms the passage of a polar cyclone between Switzerland, Austria and the Balkan regions: Italy will be touched by this cyclone with little precipitation limited, in the form of snowstorms, to the Alpine mountains border.

However, the wind will be able to pass the Alps with violent gusts even in the Po Valley; the same wind from the North, bypassing the French Alps, will dive into the Mediterranean from the Gulf of Lion, reaching Sardinia with Mistral gusts even exceeding 100 km/h.

Maximum alert therefore for the wind: from the next few hours a rapid intensification is expected starting from the North-West with gusts over 150 km/h in the Alps and up to 90-100 km/h on the valley outlets and locally also in the plains between Piedmont and Lombardy; From the afternoon the gusts will become more frequent and in the evening they will also reach Emilia Romagna. We will have an exceptional episode of Foehn wind in the plains and extreme hurricane gusts in the Alps: the wind classification in fact indicates the hurricane class with speeds above 118 km/h, obviously we will not have a hurricane but the wind will be similar in strength.

From Christmas Eve onwards the storm will ease: even in the Alps, on the Po Valley and on the Major Islands the wind will be less violent. The rotation of the atmospheric circulation from the North-West to the South-West will, however, push more humid air masses from the sea towards Liguria and the entire Tyrrhenian coast: showers in these areas are not excluded for Christmas Eve and Christmas, while the weather will definitely improve in the North and will remain sunny elsewhere too.

As for today, stormy winds in the Alps in the north, Foehn also in the plains. At the center of the Mistral storm in Sardinia, irregular clouds elsewhere. In the south, rain on the Tyrrhenian coasts.

Tomorrow, December 23, strong winds in the Alps in the north, Foehn still on the plain. In the center, irregular clouds over the Tyrrhenian Sea, sun elsewhere; wind in Sardinia and partly cloudy in the south. Sunday 24 December, Christmas Eve, sunny in the north, in the center clouds on the Tyrrhenian with isolated showers, sunny elsewhere and in the south partially cloudy, showers on the Tyrrhenian. The Christmas trend, however, is mild and mostly sunny, but foggy in the North; cloudy on the Tyrrhenian Sea with some local showers.

(Unioneonline/ss)