The “Merla Days”, i.e. January 29-30-31, are as if “disappeared”. And it is above all Sardinia and Sicily that are paying the price.

Coldiretti raised the alarm, underlining how «the record temperatures on blackbird days upset nature after a 2023 which recorded a 14% drop in precipitation and a temperature 1.14 degrees higher than the historical average of the period 1991-2020".

The association analyzed the Isac Cnr data and those of the regional hydrographic departments. And the situation that emerges appears worrying, especially for the two largest Italian islands.

«Traditionally, Blackbird Days are the coldest of the whole year. Instead, the high temperatures represent an anomaly which - underlines Coldiretti - is also worrying due to the drought with the scarcity of snow in various sectors of the Alpine arc and on a large part of the Apennine ridge and a situation of water stress which is growing but as it descends towards the South with its peak in the islands, which is certainly not normal in the month of January. In the reservoirs of the Sardinia region on January 1st there was a fifth less water compared to the same period of the previous year while in those of Sicily in January 2024 they were 63 million cubic meters less (-13%) compared to previous year", the Coldiretti studies reveal.

(Unioneonline/lf)