On Friday 17 January 2025 and Saturday 18 January 2025, a rapidly developing Afro-Mediterranean cyclone named Gabri swept across the southern regions of Italy, especially Sicily and Calabria, and crossed Sardinia. The storm continued to affect the northern regions of the country, where it arrived in the following days. However, with much less intensity. The weather is predicted to be over in a couple of days.
Sicily According to livesicilia.it, based on data from the Sicilian Agrometeorological Information Service (Sias), "The Mediterranean storm Gabri will certainly enter the list of the most important weather phenomena of recent years for the region. Suffice it to say that to find a rainier day than Friday 17 January 2025, one would have to go back to 25 March 2020, which spared the entire year, which began with two dry months, from an unprecedented water crisis."
A first survey carried out on the production of fruit and vegetables in almost all the provinces of Sicily, although the data are still provisional, shows an uneven impact, with more significant damage in the southeastern part of the island.
Calabria
Rivers flooded, and roads were blocked by landslides and/or fallen trees, but fortunately no human casualties. According to Coldiretti Calabria's monitoring, the violent winds, with gusts of more than 100 km/h, and the heavy rains have caused considerable damage to greenhouse structures and production, jeopardizing the horticultural season in the Ionian strip of Reggio Calabria, particularly in the areas of Melito Porto Salvo and Marina di San Lorenzo, where the situation is serious.
"The violent gusts of wind that hit Sicily and Calabria also left their mark on our company, which has 12 hectares of greenhouses. The courgettes were just about to start their production cycle and, according to initial estimates, the damage was considerable. We are a company founded about four years ago, and once again it is a race against time to restore the cover and ensure that production losses are not too severe," says Domenico Falcone, who, together with his brother Fortunato, owns Società Agricola Cladì in Marina di San Lorenzo, in the province of Reggio Calabria, a young company that has specialized in greenhouse vegetable production during the winter months for three generations.
Photo: Società Agricola Cladì
Even the tomatoes were not spared at harvest time. "As for the ox-heart variety, the fruit-bearing plants are quite damaged (see video below) and the covers are completely destroyed," says Falcone.
In the following video, a tomato greenhouse transplanted on 20 October, which was in the growing and setting phase, suffered damage to the covers.
The Corigliano-Rossano area in the region of Calabria is also facing an emergency situation after heavy rains. As reported by lacnews24.it, "The bad weather has caused the collapse of an embankment in the Citrea, in the Contrada Donnanna locality, where some residents have complained of flooding that has invaded homes and land. The situation is also critical in the Calabrian Contrada Fellino locality, where the water has submerged numerous crops, causing extensive damage to agricultural production."
A fruit and vegetable cooperative in Corigliano-Rossano reports that "There is a lot of water, but the damage is manageable."
Transportation has been inconvenienced, with airplanes diverted and trains stopped. Because of the wind, a Ryanair airplane to Reggio Calabria was diverted to Brindisi (Apulia) after trying to land in Lamezia Terme (Calabria). Difficulties also occurred for the train circulation on the Paola-Sapri line, which serves the stations of the Cosenza-Tyrrhenian Coast. In fact, there were interruptions due to obstacles at several points along the line, causing delays.
Sardinia
Despite some damage in the province of Nuoro due to fallen trees and the overflowing of two watercourses in the Sassari area, in the eastern part between Gallura and Nuoro, the effects of the storm Gabri in Sardinia concern rainfall levels that were unthinkable until a few days ago, as reported by unionesarda.it. In Torpè, water is even being released into the sea at a rate of more than 200 cubic meters per second. In the Maccheronis dam, on the river Posada, the lamination alarm phase was activated after the water level reached its maximum. In accordance with the Civil Protection Plan, the S'Adu e Mesu and Sas Luasa crossings were closed.