Home Drought Central [ENG] - Drought Central

Drought Situation

Some content are available only in Italian

Bollettino Febbraio 2026

Ramona Magno
March 13, 2026

Secondo i dati Copernicus, a livello globale Febbraio è stato il quinto più caldo dal 1979 rispetto alla media del periodo di riferimento 1991-2020, così come la stagione invernale. In Europa, invece, le anomalie del mese sono state quasi in media (-0.1°C) a causa di una netta distinzione fra le anomalie positive che hanno interessato tutta l’area mediterranea e le zone occidentali e di sud-est, e le opposte anomalie negative sulla regione finnoscandinava, i Paesi del Baltico e la Russia nord-occidentale (vedi mappa). Anche le piogge hanno avuto una distribuzione opposta, con un mese più umido della norma sull’Europa occidentale e meridionale, e condizioni più secche sul resto del continente. Le precipitazioni hanno portato in alcuni casi anche ad eventi molto intensi ed alluvionali, in particolare sulla penisola iberica e Francia occidentale.

Gli apporti nevosi, in termini di Equivalente Idrico Nivale (SWE) alla prima settimana di Marzo, mostrano un deficit a livello nazionale intorno al 22%. L’andamento generale dell’inverno, inoltre, mostra come la fase di accumulo abbia raggiunto il picco intorno al 20 febbraio ed ora sia in fase di fusione. A livello alpino il deficit è nettamente inferiore (-11%) rispetto a quello appenninico (-73%) (CIMA Foundation).
Invasi: Le precipitazioni di Febbraio hanno ulteriormente incrementato i livelli di riempimento, in particolare in Sardegna. Anche i maggiori invasi di Puglia e Basilicata hanno beneficiato di questi apporti, anche se fra Capitanata e Molise il recupero è inferiore (vedi mappe).
Grandi laghi del nord Italia: Nella prima decade di Marzo i principali laghi presentano altezze idrometriche superiori alla media, eccetto l’Iseo che invece continua ad essere sotto i valoro normali.

Previsioni per i prossimi mesi

Per quanto riguarda le temperature dell’aria del trimestre Aprile-Giugno 2026, i dati d’insieme dei maggiori centri europei per le previsioni a medio termine danno un segnale positivo su tutta Europa, con le probabilità più alte sulla porzione Mediterranea, Europa orientale, isole britanniche e Scandinavia occidentale. Temperature superficiali del Mar Mediterraneo ancora superiori alla media. Le piogge, danno un segnale di surplus su Europa centrale e Italia centro-settentrionale e Mediterraneo centro-orientale, con una probabilità del 40-50%.

→ Bollettino Gennaio 2026

→ Bollettino Dicembre 2025

→ Bollettino Novembre 2025

→ Bollettino Ottobre 2025

→ Bollettino Settembre 2025

→ Bollettino Agosto 2025

Podcast “Reticoli” – Ep. 4 – Quello spazio tra siccità e alluvioni

22/12/2025

Temperature alte, il Generale Inverno stenta e la neve si scioglie: -50% rispetto alla media dal 2011

19/12/2025

E-Planet, servizio “Terra a secco”

20/07/2025

RAI – GEO

09/05/2025

RAI – Punti di vista

23/04/2025

Drought WebGIS

A WebGIS application based on open source solutions customized to integrate different datasets and share maps and graphs of drought indices with researchers, decision-makers and other stakeholders.

Different functions allow to select sections of territory or visualize the trend of the indices in a specific pixel.

Maps and graphs can also be downloaded in png format.

Please Note: Due to the size of the images, it is possible to download sections of the vegetation indices smaller than the whole geographic window.

Please Note: due to problems concerning the Terra MODIS satellite, the TCI and VHI indices are available until the 9th of November 2022. They will be replaced soon with new products.

Drought Scan

The Drought Scan (DS) is an operational climate service for users with different profiles — technicians, researchers, irrigation consortia, and water authorities — who need a clear, consistent, and scalable assessment of drought conditions at the river-basin scale, using tools that are easy to use yet scientifically robust.

For further information, visit the dedicated page.

Drought
is a complex phenomenon

The complexity of the drought phenomenon requires the availability of a system as comprehensive and integrated as possible to respond to the different users requests.

The challenge
Increasing environmental resilience

Heat waves and droughts have significant and growing repercussions on physical, chemical, and biological systems, as well as on socio-economic sectors such as health, agriculture, natural ecosystems, and tourism. One of the main challenges in coping with drought is to reduce the temporal gap between the onset and development of a dry period and the response in managing drought-related emergencies. This requires not only robust monitoring systems, but also institutional readiness and coordination across sectors.

A Scientific Proactive approach
Technical support and timely information

Although coping with these extreme events requires effective actions, policymakers and water users often show low levels of preparedness. This may be due to the lack of a proactive approach involving monitoring and forecasting activities, mitigation measures, and public education. As a result, responses are frequently reactive rather than anticipatory. Sharing a scientific and proactive approach — combined with access to both technical support and timely information — can foster more anticipatory responses to extreme events.

A frequent phonomenon

After flooding, it is the second natural disaster that affects the population.

Long term impact

The impact on the environment and human activities can show up late and persist even after the end of the drought event.

High variability

Its intensity and spatial extent are extremely variable.

A creeping phenomenon

With respect to other natural extreme events, drought is characterised by a slow and often difficult to define onset and a long-lasting evolution.

Drought Observatory: the reason why

Drought monitoring supports a better resilience to reduce the impacts of drought events

Drought monitoring and forecasting system

The Institute of BioEconomy of the National Research Council (IBE-CNR) created a system to provide a semi-automatic, detailed, timely and comprehensive operational service. This service, initially developed for Tuscany Region, supports decision makers, water authorities, researchers and general stakeholders.

Integration of ground-based and satellite data

Meteorological stations network, satellite images and models are integrated through an open source and interoperable SDI (Spatial Data Infrastructure) based on PostgreSQL/PostGIS to produce vegetation and precipitation indices to follow the occurrence and evolution of a drought event.

The Indices: Drought occurrences and trends

The system is based on a monitoring component and on a forecasting ones. It uses two type of indices:

direct climate-based indices.
indirect vegetation-based indices

A continuous Work-in-Progress

Spatial Data Infrastructure

New technical improvements in the ICT infrastructure, coupled with scientific advances, allow a timely, ready-to-use and users-specific upgrading of the early warning communication.

SOA | OGC | PostgreSQL

A Service-Oriented Architecture (SOA) based on Open Geospatial Consortium (OGC) standards. Database-centred architecture, with PostgreSQL DataBase Management System.

Innovative Approach

The geographic data flows (from the download of remote sensing and climatic data to the storage of final indices) and all the related geoprocessing functions are integrated in a single environment.

Advanced Statistical Procedures

The integration of the PL/R (R Procedural Language) wrapper into the procedural language of PostgreSQL (PL/pgSQL) allowed the creation of advanced statistical procedures using R engine.