After the worst blizzard in decades in Greece and Turkey, with up to 50 cm of snow in Athens and up to 36 cm in Istanbul (and measurable snowfall in Antalya, Mugla or Dalaman: https://mkweather.com/the-worst-blizzard-in-greece-since-1968-athens-50-cm-istanbul-turkey-36-cm-of-snow-florina-173c-and-a-rare-tornado-near-a-snow-covered-island/; https://mkweather.com/antalya-mugla-and-dalaman-turkey-with-the-first-snowfall-since-1993-a-country-with-the-strongest-power-outages-in-history/) and extreme frosts above western Balkan up to -33,4°C in Montenegro /https://mkweather.com/a-historic-siberian-winter-in-balkan-montenegro-with-an-all-time-national-record-kosanica-334c// -31,1°C in Serbia /https://mkweather.com/a-peak-of-winter-2021-2022-in-balkan-karajukica-bunari-serbia-311c// and -29,5°C in Bosnia and Herzegovina /https://mkweather.com/possible-absolute-temperature-records-in-parts-of-bosnia-and-herzegovina-sitnica-295c//, extremely cold air has on 26. January 2022 shifted even more westward and southward, above Italy.
The most surprising record however didn´t appear in northern or central parts of the country, but in the southernmost part – Sicily.
In Palazzolo Acreide, only a few kilometers from Siracusa, 670 MASL (the hottest record of maximum temperature in Europe ever from August 2021, +48,8°C: https://mkweather.com/siracusa-italy-488c-european-all-time-temperature-record-was-broken/), anomalous -10,3°C was on 26. January 2022 measured, which should be possibly the lowest temperature for the city in January in all-time history.
In Siracusa, -4,3°C was on 26. January 2022 measured. In Siracusa Idroscalo (maritime), -0,5°C was measured, without doubt, the coldest January day in the all-time history of measurements.
Caronia Pomiere under Etna (around 1400 MASL) reported -8,3°C, but many stations with frosts 0/-5°C appeared across the island, and frosts were reported from more stations such as minimum temperatures above 0°C.
Even in warmer places, widespread ground frosts were measured.
From Apennine Peninsula, Catania report -3,0°C, Naples -2,3°C, and Rome -1,4°C.
Monte Scuro, 1710 MASL, in southern Italy (Calabria) reported -9,9°C, which should be a temperature only 2,1°C above all-time January temperature record from January 1999 (-12,1°C: https://it.wikipedia.org/wiki/Stazione_meteorologica_di_Monte_Scuro).
It appears that extremely cold weather should return above southern (and all) Italy around 29. January and then 6. February 2022, with a possibility of similar frosts not in the region, but in wider parts of the central and eastern third of the wider European region.
Minimum temperatures in Sicily on 26. January 2022. Source: http://www.sias.regione.sicilia.it/frameset_tmax.htm
Source: Weather Sicily Twitter
