Two very strong hailstorms within a few days that could have caused very serious consequences. Last Saturday in Milan, the violent hailstorm interrupted Bad Bunny’s concert and sent tens of thousands of people fleeing. On Wednesday morning on the A3, the highway connecting Bologna to Padua, a second very violent hailstorm caused multiple damages to cars, shattering windows and damaging bodywork, but fortunately without major consequences for people.
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Hailstones with a diameter of 5 cm are more frequent
«We must acknowledge the reality – explain Radarmeteo-Hypermeteo, a hub for reanalysis and applied climate scenarios founded by climatologist Massimo Crespi – which has profoundly changed. The risk of large hail with hailstones exceeding 5 centimeters in diameter has increased by 80% compared to the average of recent years. The new violent hailstorms must prompt a reflection on how to manage outdoor events because 80,000 people fleeing, as happened last Saturday at San Siro, can also become a public order issue».
In Milan, the meeting between warm air from the South and cold air from Northern Europe
«On Saturday – commented climatologist Massimo Crespi – a warm and humid air mass was present over Lombardy, fueled by the expansion of the African anticyclone; at the same time, a disturbance over Central Europe was beginning to push cooler and more unstable air over Northern Italy, creating a situation of strong contrast. At altitude, more intense winds, generated by this situation, favored the creation of thunderstorms, while on the ground, the accumulated energy could fuel even vigorous cells».
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In 2026, 13.5% of extreme events recorded in the last 10 years
According to the European Severe Weather Database, reported by the National Association of Land Reclamation Consortia (Anbi), from January 1, 2016, to date, 7526 episodes of “large hail” have been recorded along the Peninsula: of these events recorded in ten years, a full 13.4%, or 1006, occurred in the first 7 months and 20 days of 2026.
A figure that marks a strong acceleration of these phenomena, given that in all of 2025 there were 779, in 2024 687, while 2023 was the year with the highest number of anomalous hailstorms, 1479; in 2022, 1001 episodes of “large hail” were recorded, which had been 871 in 2021. The further back in time one goes, the more the number decreases.
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