Italy saw more extreme weather events in 2025, and there was an SOS due to record temperatures which is set to grow even more urgent in coming years amid the climate crisis, environmental group Legambiente said Tuesday.
Extreme weather events in Italy increased in 2025, and this year is the second year with the most climate change-related events in the last eleven years, after 2023, which holds the record.
Specifically, according to the final report by Legambiente's Città Clima Observatory, conducted in collaboration with the Unipol Group, 376 extreme weather events were recorded in Italy in 2025, a 5.9% increase compared to 2024; 2023 was marked by 383 extreme events.
Flooding, wind damage, and river overflows are the most frequent events.
The NGO warns of a worrying increase in cases linked to record temperatures (+94.1%), landslides caused by heavy rainfall (+42.4%), and wind damage (+28.3%).
Lombardy, Sicily, and Tuscany are the hardest-hit regions, while the most severely affected provinces were Genoa, Messina, and Turin.
The south has been suffering from the drought emergency this year, with Sardinia, Sicily, and Puglia leading the way.
According to a recent study by the University of Mannheim, Legambiente notes that the damage suffered in the country in 2025 amounts to €11.9 billion, and in the future, with a projection to 2029, it will rise to €34.2 billion.
"The climate crisis spares no one," Legambiente notes.
"It is urgent to implement the National Plan for Adaptation to Climate Change, approved at the end of 2023, allocating the necessary financial resources, and passing a law against land consumption." More specifically, in 2025, there were 139 floods from heavy rainfall, 86 cases of wind damage, and 37 river floods.
Genoa experienced 12 extreme weather events, Milan and Palermo each had 7; at the regional level, Lombardy recorded 50 cases, Sicily 45, and Tuscany 41.
Among the provinces, Genoa recorded 16 extreme weather events, Messina and Turin 12, Florence and Treviso 11, Milan 10, and the provinces of Como, Lecce, Massa Carrara, and Palermo 9.
Transport damage is also a concern: 24 events in 2025 caused damage and delays to trains and local public transport.
These interruptions and suspensions were caused not only by heavy rainfall, flooding, and landslides, but also by record temperatures and strong gusts of wind.
Italy, Legambiente denounces, "is paying the price for sporadic and uncoordinated adaptation actions, lacking a multi-sectoral and multi-level approach." To avoid significant economic damage, "it is essential to establish national governance, implement the National Climate Change Adaptation Plan (PNACC), approved at the end of 2023, and allocate the necessary financial resources, still lacking, to 'give legs' to the 361 measures to be adopted at the national and regional levels.
To date, its failure to implement it is cascadingly slowing the drafting of local climate adaptation plans." Equally urgent, according to the environmental association, is the establishment by decree of a National Observatory for Adaptation to Climate Change, composed of representatives of the Regions and local authorities, to identify territorial and sectoral priorities and monitor the effectiveness of adaptation actions.
"Once again," commented Stefano Ciafani, national president of Legambiente, "Italy has been caught unprepared for a climate crisis that has been a harsh reality across the country for many years.
And, as always, those paying the price are citizens, local communities, businesses, and the country's economy more generally. We continue to rehash emergencies, rather than working on mitigation, adaptation, and prevention plans. We ask the Meloni government to place the climate crisis at the center of its political agenda."
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