Parts of northern Italy are recovering from a historic deluge earlier this week that produced a new continent-wide record for rainfall over a 12-hour period and left one city with nearly a year’s worth of rainfall in one day.
According to Accuweather, Rossiglione, Italy, located in the Genoa province, found itself in the absolute worst of Monday’s extreme rainfall. The city ended up with a mind-boggling 34.8 inches (883.8 mm) of rainfall over the course of 24 hours.
The annual rainfall total for the nearby city of Genoa itself tops out at just over 42 inches, which is fairly representative for the region at large, according to AccuWeather forecasters. This means that Rossiglione recorded 82.9 percent of the average rainfall that falls over the course of an entire year in the region in just 24 hours.
In order to record rainfall totals that extreme, rainfall rates have to be extraordinary, perhaps even record-breaking. MSN News stated: In 12 hours, from 5:40 a.m. to 5:40 p.m. local time, the city recorded a staggering 29.2 inches (740.6 mm), which broke the record for the European continent, according to climatologist Maximiliano Herrera.
“That’s ridiculous rainfall,” AccuWeather Senior Meteorologist Adam Douty said. Outside of Rossiglione’s new records, at least two other Italian cities set records Monday. The Italian record for the greatest six-hour rainfall now belongs to Montenotte Inferiore with an incredible 19.5 inches (496 mm).
According to the Regional Agency for the Protection of the Ligurian Environment (Agenzia Regionale per la Protezione dell’Ambiente Ligure or ARPAL), the previous record belonged to Brugnato, Italy, with 18.6 inches (472 mm) in six hours on Oct. 25, 2011.
