Extreme hail storm ravaged Florence, Italy

Tuscany, Italy experienced a violent hail storm with significant impacts on the region’s capital of Florence on Friday, September 19, 2014.

Local media reported that the hail storm lasted about ten minutes in the city of Florence. Videos of the storm show torrential rain and hail coming down, and while the hail stones themselves are not large, the sheer quantity is enough to cause chaos on the city streets.This was plenty of time for hail stones to coat the roads like snow.

Roads were blocked and a number of government offices as well as schools and museums were closed for the day while the clean up process began. The storm also brought down trees across the city, which has lead to power outages.

According to Italian media as many as 50 persons were injured from the storm, and it’s likely that local farmers will be reporting extensive crop damage.

Radar shows the storm beginning off the west coast of Tuscany early Friday morning. As the storm crosses into Tuscany, it grows in size and intensity. By 17:30 UTC (13:30 local time) the storm is over Florence. Gaping holes in the storm suggest it was so intense that it maxed out on Weather Underground’s radar reflectivity scale.

Radar reflectivity over Italy on Friday, September 19, 2014. Image credit: Weather Underground

Featured image credit: Weather Underground (Google Earth)