Rain At Last

Last winter has been hot and dry for Europe, and spring has not brought much improvement. In northern Italy, temperatures remained 3 - 5 °C above average and precipitations down to barely 50% of the normal during the month of April.

The situation was pretty close to a drought: in some areas reserves of water and water content of the soil were down to worrysome levels. Rain and snow at the end of March gave some relief but could not reestabilish the balance.

Finally, around April 30 low pressure systems from the North Atlantic were able to break into the Mediterranean basin and bring rain. Weather has been cooler and humid since then, and this morning we finally has some serious rain. Not enough yet, but that's a start.