Province of Padua - Climate

Climate

The most part of the province has a temperate sub-continental climate (or humid subtropical climate for the Köppen climate classification Cfa); only part of the Colli Euganei have a milder climate, because their southern slopes are above the thermal inversion line by winter, and exposed to the Sun all the year: which allows them to cultivate small olive trees.

The winter is usually moderately cold in the province, avoiding both warm and cold extremes; frost is very common at plain (below the thermal inversion line) with about 60-70 frost days a year, and temperatures usually do not get lower than -8/-12°C in the plains during the year; but the all-times record for Padua is -19.2°C by January 1985. The lower plain is slightly colder then the higher plain; snowfalls are highly variable from year to year, and one could see winters with almost no snow as years with frequent snowfalls (Padua has a century average of almost 20 cm/8in during a year). Fog is a common phenomenon, even lasting all the day long, above all in the lower plain.

Summers are moderately hot and wet, warmer and less rainy in the lower plain, while the higher plain is often hit by thunderstorms; Padua has a record of +39.8°C by August 2003, and usually gets above +36°C in a year.

Spring and autumn are changeable seasons, which may experience wintry or sultry weather, heavy rainfalls or pleasant sunny days. The period between April and June is usually the wettest one in a year.

Extreme events may sometime hit the province. Flooding is a well-known phenomenon since ancient time, so that all the rivers and channels which cross the plain are embanked, and many channels were dug to avoid frequent flooding. The worst recent events were on 4 November 1966 and on 2 November 2010.

Snowstorms, with some inch of fresh snow and strong Bora gusts, may happen during a normal winter, but rarely can be considered like a blizzard, and usually they do not last more than 1–2 days and with no more than 6-10in (15–25 cm) of snow. Anyway a really exceptional event happened during the winter of 1608: a snowfall that lasted for 40 consecutive days, from late January to early March, with the snow depth at ground reaching at least 6–7 ft (about 2m) as witnessed by Galileo; a similar event never repeated.

Rarely, between May and September, tornadoes may hit the area as well. The most famous were the one of 17 August 1756, bringing heavy damages to Padua; and the one of 11 September 1970, starting from Colli Euganei and passing through Paduan metropolitan area to end over Venice, an F2 (intensifying up to F4 going onto Venice) on the Fujita scale. Hailstorms are possible as well by summer, the worst recent event having been on 28 August 2003.