Bargaweather.com, the sister site to barganews.com, has been on line since the start of 2006. All the data from the weather station based in Barga Vecchia has been going out on line every two minutes of the day and night for the past three years. All this data is freely available to any interested parties (link here) What is of interest to us this weekend in Barga is the amount of rain that has fallen on the city in the past three days.
Driving winds and torrential rain has been lashing this area more or less non stop for the past 72 hours. During that time 147 mm of rain, hailstones and brief flurries of snow have fallen on the city.
The river Serchio at the bottom of the valley, more than 5 kilometres away can be heard in the city as a constant rumbling sound in the background as enormous quantities of flood water rush down through the valley to the sea. The fact that the rain turned to snow above 1000 metres above sea level giving a valuable pause before the melt water joins the river has probably saved the already problematic situation from turning decidedly dangerous.
We have just had the wettest two months since the weather station began recording data. All eyes are now on the weather forecast for the coming weekend when the 3rd Barga Festa della Cioccolata is supposed to take place. Now in its third year, this event brings to Barga, chocolate manufacturers and artisans from all over Tuscany who display their wares in the cantinas and small shops in Barga Vecchia. (article here) People may remember that last years’s event which was supposed to run for two days was curtailed by bad weather on the second day … hopefully this year it will manage to go the full three days without bad weather coming into play.
2006 Total rainfall – 36.21in / 919.7mm
2007 Total rainfall – 33.50in / 850.9mm
2008 Total rainfall – 41.13in / 1044.7mm
If you think Barga has been hit badly, how about Venice. Clicking on my name above will take you to some sad pictures.