Twelve Regions Under Storm Alert as the Rain Reaches the Apennines

Twelve Italian regions were placed under storm alert on Friday as heavy rain brought flooding and disruption to parts of the country, according to The Local Italy. The outlet reported that forecasters expect conditions to improve over the weekend, after a cold front that had been moving down the peninsula since the middle of the week.

The same cold front was flagged earlier in the week, when The Local Italy reported that the north would see the first showers before the rain spread towards central and southern regions. That forecast has now been borne out across a wide band of the country, with the alert covering a dozen regions at once.

For the Abruzzo interior, the sequence is a familiar one: a dry September, then a single intense system that arrives faster than the mountain ground can absorb it. The bureau has no independent rainfall figures for the region from the international wire, and none are claimed here.