Climate livability: Sardinian cities are taking a hit, as drought and increased "African" heat take their toll.

Sunshine, sea breezes that counteract the excessive heat and cold, and the absence of the African heat .

These characteristics make Ancona the Italian city with the best weather conditions. Close behind are four southern cities: Bari, Vibo Valentia, Brindisi, and Trapani. The North, particularly the Po Valley, fares less well, as do the major cities. These are the data from the 2026 edition of the Climate Liveability Index , a project by iLMeteo.it and Corriere della Sera.

And what about Sardinia? In this year's report (which tracks our country's climate well-being based on 17 parameters—from extreme events to freezing days, from gusts of wind to heat waves—through the collection and analysis of over 400 million weather data points from 108 Italian provincial capitals) , the island's cities show a marked decline compared to the previous year's data.

As for the overall Climate Liveability Index (i.e. the score that combines the main climate indicators), the best values are those of Sassari , which reaches a score of 692 points , well above the national average of 577, but which has slipped from first place nationally last year to ninth .

The second most livable Sardinian city from a climate perspective is Carbonia , which ranks 52nd (in 2024 it was 17th). Next come Nuoro (58th, from seventh last year), Olbia (64th, from twentieth in 2024), Cagliari (which slipped from tenth to 69th, with an index of 372 points), and finally Oristano , which has the worst regional values and also sits at the bottom of the national rankings: 104th (out of 108), a drop of over seventy places.

In the iLMeteo.it-Corriere della Sera study , Oristano also ranks first among Italian cities suffering the most from the "African heat," with the highest number of days with temperatures equal to or above 34°C. It also ranks third among provincial capitals with the highest number of days when heat and humidity make temperatures feel equal to or above 32°C.

The report also highlights Sardinia as the region that suffers most from the effects of the water crisis: Cagliari is in first place among the cities with periods of at least 14 consecutive days without significant rainfall (157), followed by Oristano (145) and Olbia (142).

Furthermore, Cagliari is in last place (108th) for the number of days of rain (only 33 of which saw at least 1 mm of rainfall) and Sassari is at the bottom of the list of cities for hours of heavy rain.

Finally, three cities in Sardinia are in the first three places in the ranking of cities with the most days with wind gusts equal to or greater than 40 km per hour: Carbonia and Cagliari tied with 157 days, followed by Olbia (154).

"The Climate Liveability Index has emphasized a central theme in recent years: the ever-increasing influence of climate on our society," explains Emanuele Colli, administrator of iLMeteo.it. He adds: "Now more than ever, forecasting the weather and analyzing climate change also means better understanding the dynamics to which people and territories are subjected."