by Althea Mallee
Since arriving in Friuli Venezia Giulia last year, I’ve seen a variety of extreme weather conditions. Last year’s summer produced unusually high temperatures with droughts across the country and in contrast this year, specifically towards the north of Italy, has seen heavier amounts of rainfall, changeable weather, and multiple storms. Monday night became a new addition to the only recent catastrophic events seen on July 13th from the more localized areas of the region.
Usually, people read the standard weather forecasts, but this is a rarity for me due to my obsessive compulsion with surfing. I could see some good swell was arriving on Tuesday, so my mind was fixated on was that, after all the daily weather forecast has been unpredictable. If I had chosen to read the weather forecast for our hometown in Codroipo, Udine, I would have potentially noticed another summer storm was about to arrive, not an uncommon occurrence for this area and especially as of late.
But at around 9pm Monday the 24th of July high winds started rolling in coupled with thunder and lightning blazing overhead of the small township, Codroipo. I stared out our apartment window somewhat naive and excited, after all my mother birthed me into this world during a thunderstorm, so this fascination has always been with me, but no-one could prepare me for what was to come next.
A large supercell the most uncommon of storm types began to rage over the city of Codroipo. Seemingly out of nowhere large hail stones began penetrating our balcony with layers of ice covering entire neighboring rooftops in mere seconds. My initial childlike excitement began to dissolve and soon was replaced with thoughts of devastation.
The next morning revealed the aftermath and all those who had been affected by it. Flooded streets, bent signposts and broken trees, just to name a few and we soon realized the storms had extended far beyond Codroipo.
The hail itself only lasted several minutes but now continues to have a piercing impact on the local community. My husband and I were blessed with only minor damages to our car, but we now know of many others who were not as fortunate.
Here are some of their stories:
“I am from the Northern Ireland, Belfast and I have been living in FVG for 1 year and 2 months,” Roisin Robertson told us. “Myself and partner had just arrived home and stood at the front of our apartment watching the lightening in the distance. As we felt it getting closer we went inside, just in time to close down all of our shutters to protect the windows. Our apartment shatters were damaged with holes from the hail stones as well as the plaster walls at front. Also so flooding into our kitchen. Our car windscreen was shattered and dented. Our family farm nearby in Vissandone lost several roofs. Smashed windows. Resulting in bad flooding. Hay balls, which is one of the main food sources for the cows have been saturated. Glass from windows shattered around the feeding area. Speaking with family and friends who have lived here all their lives….they have never experienced such storms before.”
“Was stuck in a train coming from Venezia that stopped in the middle of nowhere due to electric failure because of a lightening that hit the main generator somewhere on the line. Arrived home almost morning after a long long long journey through tens of diversions on the roads due to flooding and blockage due to huge trees fallen on the roads. Was just an awful storm,” said Mohamed who’s been living in Udine area for 5 years now.
“I am originally from Tuscany but have been living in Friuli Venezia Giulia for 23 years now,” Gianluca told us. “I was frightened about the possible damages as a similar storm had happened previously on July 13th. Our car received minor damage and we could see many cars at our place with hail damage. I was able to drive to work the next day with the little damage to the car. There were a few leaves, the township managed to take most of the debris from the roads. There was small areas of flooding. One of my co-workers received extensive damage at their place in Mortegliano. He had two cars damaged that were unable to drive and the skylight in their house got smashed with rain coming inside.”
“I was born and raised in Friuli Venezia Giulia,” Luca told us. “I have never experienced a storm like this in the past 36 years, ever. I was unable to go to work the next day due to all the damage to the houses and trees in my area.”
