Deadly storm to unleash more flooding, mountain snow from Italy into northwestern Balkan Peninsula into Tuesday
A potent storm will bring the risk for additional flooding rain and mountain snowfall to parts of southern and central Europe into Tuesday.
The storm system turned deadly over the weekend as four people were killed in southern Italy by a landslide amid the dangerous weather, according to ANSA. Two additional people were killed by the adverse weather on Monday bringing the total to six.
Areas from eastern Spain to Poland and the Balkan Peninsula will be impacted by this large and powerful storm system; however, its greatest impacts will be felt from southeastern France into northern and central Italy as well as western Slovenia and Croatia.
The adverse weather forced many school closures across Italy on Monday.
Transportation has also been impacted as heavy rain and mountain snow forced the closure of Brenner Pass near the Italy-Austria border and Simplon Pass near the border of Italy and Switzerland.
The higher elevations of northern Italy, southern Switzerland and southwest Austria reported 30-60 cm (12-24 inches) of fresh snowfall from Saturday into Monday morning.
The higher elevations will continue to deal with moderate to heavy snowfall.
“Some locations will record up to 1 meter (3 feet) of snow by Tuesday,” said AccuWeather Meteorologist Tyler Roys.
In the lower elevations, the rainfall was just as impressive with more than 200 mm (8 inches) of rain falling through Monday morning in several locations across southern Switzerland.
Flash flooding will remain the most widespread risk across the region into Tuesday; however, thunderstorms can contain damaging winds and hail, and heavy rainfall can elevate the risk for mudslides.
Even in the absence of thunderstorms, strong wind gusts on the order of 64-97 km/h (40-60 mph) can cause damage.
The heaviest downpours will remain focused on Italy and the northwestern Balkan Peninsula into Tuesday.
Only a brief pause in the stormy weather is expected on Wednesday before a new storm targets the region by Wednesday night into Thursday.
Any additional rainfall will quickly result in flooding problems and could bring another round of transportation disruptions.
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