Extreme weather has brought avalanches, storms, strong winds and landslides to Italy and France.
A 16-year-old boy died after being hit by an avalanche while skiing off-piste in Plan in Val Passiria in Italy’s South Tyrol region, near the Austrian border. The avalanche risk in the area stands at level three, or “considerable”, on the European avalanche danger scale. The boy is the second person to be killed by an avalanche in the region in recent days.
More than 6,000 people living in three villages in the Gressoney area of the Aosta valley, the Alpine region near the French border, have been isolated since Sunday as a result of avalanches, which also blocked a tunnel.
Thunderstorms and winds of more than 60mph (100km/h) triggered landslides in the Liguria region on Italy’s north-west coast. A tornado struck off the port city of Savona, and waves of more than four metres were recorded in Capo Mele.
There was flooding in the Alessandria area of Piedmont and storms across Italy’s southern regions and in Sardinia, where snow also fell on the Gennargentu massif, a mountain range in the centre of the island. Several Italian regions remain on medium or high alert as more extreme weather is forecast in the coming days.
In what is one of the busiest times of the year for French ski resorts – the half-term holiday – forecasters said there was a high risk of avalanches in the Alps after heavy snowfall on Sunday.
The French meteorological office said the mountain area along the Italian border where up to a metre of snow was expected at an altitude of 2,500 metres was at particular risk. Heavy snow at the weekend cut off access to several Alpine resorts in south-east of France, where there were reports of 50cm of snowfall in a few hours overnight.
On the other side of the country in Brittany, winds of up to 50mph (80km/h) and heavy rain brought flooding. Fifty-four French departments were subject to weather warnings on Monday, four of which – three in the south-east and one in the west – were on high alert for extreme conditions.
The two-week half-term holiday is staggered over six weeks in three zones. The last zone will return to class in a week.
The extreme weather comes after an unusually warm and dry February across Europe.
