The arrival of bad weather puts crops at risk in the countryside that have been fooled by the heat and have extended the season from eggplants to peppers, from zucchini to cucumbers, while the harvests of tomatoes for sauce, corn and rice are still underway and olives have just begun. That's Coldiretti's warning of weather alerts in many regions for cloudbursts, flooding and landslides, in an autumn 2023 that ranks so far in Italy as the third warmest year since 1800, with September's temperature a full 2.17 degrees higher than the historical average for the month (1991-2020). In orchards, there are fears for citrus fruits, from oranges to tangerines, for apples and pears that are in the midst of harvesting, and for persimmon and kiwi crops where a hailstorm can devastate an entire year's work. We are facing a clear trend of tropicalization with a higher frequency of violent events, seasonal lag, short and intense rainfall and the rapid transition from hot to bad weather with devastating effects. Since the beginning of the year, the Peninsula has been hit by an average of more than 10 extreme events per day based on Coldiretti's processing of ESWD (European Severe Weather Database) data, which caused a 10 percent drop in wheat production, 60 percent for cherries and 63 percent for pears while the honey harvest dropped by 70 percent compared to last year, according to Coldiretti analysis, and there are declines for the grape harvest (-12 percent) and tomato yields.
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