Plunging temps, heavy snows wreak havoc on Italy’s harvests
(ANSA) – Rome, November 27 – Italy is under attack by Attila, a current of frozen air from the Baltic Sea that brought plunging temperatures and copious snows throughout the Bel Paese on Wednesday, severely damaging harvests and shutting down schools in some areas.
Several cities in the storm-ravaged island of Sardinia – where rescue workers are trawling 40 kilometers of river in search of a farmer who went missing after last Monday’s flash floods – are experiencing sub-zero temperatures.
Coldiretti farmers’ association has called on the government to declare the worst-hit regions to be disaster areas after reports that vineyards have been crushed under the snow, greenhouses have been destroyed by hail, and fruit and vegetables have been damaged by frost.
Schools shut down in the Marche region, where snowfall reached 50 centimeters in some areas. Enel electric utility company sent 180 technicians to the field since dawn in an effort to repair lines frozen solid or downed by falling trees.
Another cold front from Eastern Europe is moving in, and authorities have advised motorists to drive with chains or snow tires and to keep checking traffic reports for possible blocked roads and highways.
Trains are circulating normally throughout the country.
The outlook remains dire as a Mediterranean cyclone called Neptune is set to sweep in from the south beginning on Thursday, bringing torrential rains and flood warnings to Sicily and the Calabria, Basilicata and Puglia regions. Another cold front, this time from the Atlantic, is gearing up to blanket vast areas of Piedmont, Lombardy, and Liguria in snow by Saturday.