The hottest third of the last 60 years in Italy, but the first, in the same period, for Northern Italy and the second 'driest' in the South: the meteorological winter just ended also rises to first place if we consider the average of the maximum temperatures throughout Italy. According to an analysis by Simone Abelli, meteorologist of Meteo Expert-Meteo.it, the cold season has been such only on paper and this year has climbed the rankings of the hottest winters in our history. "After a month of December of record heat and an extremely mild January - notes Abelli - the month of February was even at times spring and rose to third place in the hottest months of February for our country". As for the rains, February is confirmed to have been the driest in the last 60 years.
Overall, however, winter is "saved" with a sixth place thanks to the abundant rains that affected Italy in December. However, the southern regions stand out, where winter was the second driest of the historical series: in fact only half of the rain that normally should fall during the winter has fallen here. And it was an anomalous winter also in the rest of Europe: the months of December, January and February have been the hottest since the beginning of the 20th century in France. In Moscow for the first time in history, the average temperature for the quarter remained above zero. In Switzerland, with an average of 1.6 degrees, February was the second warmest since the beginning of systematic measurements in 1864, only topped by 2.1 degrees since February 1990. In Austria the meteorological winter 2019-2020 was +3.1 degrees warmer than the average 1981-2010. Finland was also the hottest winter of the 20th century.