Domingos

We’re now getting the first rain linked to the massive reach of storm Domingos which looks likely to bring trouble to the Bay if Biscay. Rain expected to peak tomorrow early. (Rainbow in extras.) as you can see the pool is very high. I should drain and dismantle but it’s cheery on the overcast days.

The death toll for the floods rose to seven or possibly eight last night. It all happened very quickly, rather like the Boscastle storm some years back. It also happened in a relatively built up residential and industrial area on the flat low lying flood plain of the Arno.

The torrents that run out of the steep hills cross the plain between high berms but once these were breached or overtopped the water had nowhere obvious to go.

300 people forced out of their homes and a first estimate of €300m in damage. There is an orange warning from eight tonight and talk of preventative evacuations.

As someone said on the Italian news last night there will need to be considerable rethinking of flood defences as the different incidents of flooding recently suggest a tendency rather than an exception.

Western Europe is being particularly hard hit by climate change and exceptional heat. This seems to be linked to climate change induced changes in the jet stream and sea temperatures that create frequent heatwaves that in turn generate more thermodynamic energy that help to generate extreme weather.

It was cool here this morning but Falterona was shrouded in cloud so I couldn’t ascertain if there had been snowfall.