Temperatures were not the only weather-related record to be broken over the past couple of weeks. The European hail record has been breached too. Twice.
On 19 July 2023, there were several very large hailstones, more than 10cm in diameter measured along their longest axis, recorded across parts of Italy and Croatia. One of these stones, measuring 16cm in diameter, was recorded in Carmignano di Brenta, Italy, and broke the previous largest hail record in Europe, which was previously held by a 15cm stone found in Romania in 2016.
However, just five days later, a new record was set. At about 9pm UTC on 24 July 2023, a 19cm hailstone was found in the town of Azzano Decimo, also in Italy. This is very close to the all-time largest hail recorded of 20.3cm, found on 23 July 2010 in South Dakota, the US. Hailstones of this size are usually formed in supercells, which have strong rotating updrafts that are able to support their mass, keeping them suspended long enough so the hailstones can grow to these very large sizes.
Heading into the new week, there will be a general cooling down trend across much of central and southern Europe. Although temperatures will generally remain above average for the first part of this week, they will gradually return to, or even just below, the seasonal norm, by the weekend. Greece will be one of the later places where temperatures will return to their climatological average, with this not expected until the following Monday. This cooling trend is, in part, due to a weakening of the high-pressure system trapping the heat over these regions as low pressure pushes eastwards across northern Europe.
Across South America, temperatures are set to be considerably above the seasonal average at the start of this week. Argentina and Chile will have temperatures close to 30C, about 10C above normal, with temperatures in neighbouring countries such as Peru, Paraguay, and southern Brazil in the region of 5-7C above their respective averages for the time of year. Thankfully, unlike what we saw in Europe, this will be shortlived, with temperatures returning much closer to average by the weekend.
