2013 Sardinia floods

Impact

The flooding was associated with an extratropical cyclone in the western Mediterranean Basin in November 2013, named Cyclone Cleopatra (also Ruven by the Free University of Berlin) which developed slow-moving embedded thunderstorm complexes, as cold air flowing from the north entered the Mediterranean and interacted with warm moist air to the east.

Continuous rain over two days resulted in the overflowing of the rivers in the northeastern part of Sardinia, flooding villages like Torpè and towns such as Olbia, Nuoro and Oristano. The cyclone brought extremely heavy rain to the island of Sardinia as more than 440 mm (17 in) of rain fell in 90 minutes on the morning of 19 November, resulting in flooding and swollen rivers bursting their banks. The area around the north-eastern city of Olbia has been affected the worst, where up to 3 m (120 in) of water has left cars and homes submerged.

Further afield, ferry services between Naples and the islands of Capri, Ischia and Procida were affected by gale-force winds and heavy seas, with bad weather spreading to Calabria and Campania on the Southern Italian mainland. As far north as Rome, authorities were monitoring the Tiber river.