Italian agricultural production and the heat wave during the summer 2003

The heat-wave which interested Europe from May to September 2003 represented an extreme event even in Italy for the recorded thermic levels, persistence of high temperature values over the standard and long duration of drought. Starting from the last half part of May until the end of the summer, the anticyclone of the Azores was firmly blocked on the medium-European regions, driving the meteorological conditions (high temperature and absence of precipitations) on the western and southern Europe. The anticyclone intercepted and deviated the atmospheric western flows and it prevented to alleviate those extreme uneasiness conditions. The positive thermic anomaly involved all Italian regions, from the Alps to the Sicily, and caused negative consequences for agricultural production, especially in not irrigated areas. The agrarian soils have shown a negative water balance mostly due to the limited rainfall during the previous winter and spring period which, according to the typical Mediterranean climate, represents the principal rainfall supply. Drought and high temperatures recorded in summer 2003 caused significant negative effects on agriculture, especially making worse amount and quality of agricultural products. Another effect was a general increase of agricultural products prices. The aim of the work is to investigate the impact of the anomalous meteorological events occurred during summer 2003 on the agricultural production, through the analysis of meteorological data (evapotranspiration, soil water balance) related to the water needs of several agricultural species.