The morning after

A night of high drama and loss. As the cold front of Storm Ciaran, which stretched from Sardinia to southern Norway, approached central Tuscany a band of thunderstorms got stuck over the hills and towns between Pisa and Florence. 200mm (8 inches) of rain crashed down in three hours and rushed down the steep Apennine slopes. Rivers burst their banks. Flooding ensued (see extra taken at midnight by a colleague of J’s.) Cars were cartwheeled away; four hospitals were flooded, three people - now five - now seven - died. Towards midnight the President of Tuscany called a state of emergency.

This all unfolded on X/Twitter as I hunkered down. We thankfully missed the stalled storms. The cold front came through with a roar and plenty of rain (65mm in the gauge). A tree came down on our lane and Solano river down in the village was still belting along nine hours later (extra). The clearing weather brought strong gusts but the poplars in the field are still standing (extra). Snow is forecast on Monte Falterona (5,426ft) at the head of our valley tonight (extra).

As someone said on Twitter, ‘There is always a fierce price to pay when the hot weather finishes.’ This year it came later than expected and is probably not over; another vast storm is being whipped across the Atlantic by a super-charged jet stream as I write.

Meanwhile in the Middle East the horror continues.