A storm with a name, and warnings with colours, from Puglia to the Aegean

Autumn in the Mediterranean does not arrive as a season; it arrives as a low. On Monday, a disturbance from the Balkans heading towards the Tyrrhenian Sea deepened over southern Italy¹. Italy’s Civil Protection Department issued an orange alert for Puglia and Basilicata and a yellow alert for Abruzzo, Molise, Campania, Calabria and Sicily, for heavy thunderstorms, strong winds and possible hail¹. Temperatures in some areas could fall 4–6 degrees below the seasonal average¹.

The local response is the part worth reading. Schools were closed in San Severo, Lecce and Brindisi¹. Lecce closed its municipal cemetery, parks and a sports ground and suspended two markets for the duration of the alert; Barletta is watching its underpasses, which can fill with water in heavy rain¹. None of that makes news on its own, and all of it keeps people out of the places where floods kill.

The same system then moved east. Greece’s national meteorological service issued an emergency bulletin saying the low, which Italy’s meteorological service named Agneta, would bring heavy rain and thunderstorms, possibly with hail and frequent lightning, until Tuesday². Corfu, Paxos and coastal Epirus were under an orange warning, rising to red from Monday evening; the eastern Aegean islands from Chios southwards and the Dodecanese were under red warnings until the night². On Tuesday the red warnings move north-east, to Macedonia, Thrace and islands including Lemnos and Lesbos².

The ministry’s advice is unglamorous and specific: secure loose objects, check that gutters and drainpipes are not blocked, and do not cross streams on foot or by car during storms or for several hours afterwards². If you are travelling in southern Italy or Greece this week, the colour on the national warning map is the only forecast you need to obey. Check it before the ferry, not on it.