Climate Index 2024: Bari the best city

Quality of life 2024

Bari displaces Imperia at the top of the Climate Index, driven by sunny days and a high level of climate comfort.
Belluno confirms itself at the bottom of the ranking thanks to cold and rainy days together with the Po Valley.
The North is concentrated in the rear, with the exception of Caserta.

Temperature, difference 2023/2013 in °C

March 25, 2024

Of Michela Finizio e Marta Casadei
AND Bari the city with the best climate in Italy, in first place in the new edition of the Sole 24 Ore climate index.

The ranking, updated with data provided by 3bmeteo relating to the decade 2013-2023, is used every year in the Quality of Life survey to tell which of the 107 capital cities people live best from a climate point of view, based on ten parameters which measure the most frequent “good weather” conditions.

The ten indices that make up the final ranking were chosen and processed by the editorial staff of Il Sole 24 Ore and validated by the 3bmeteo team of meteorological experts.

by M. Casadei and M. Finterno

by M. Casadei and M. Finterno

The indicators

The 10 parameters detect as many meteorological conditions in the period 2013-2023.
The first and last ranked for each indicator.

Measuring climate comfort

Eight and a half hours of sun a day. Nine days of extreme precipitation per year. Seventy-four days of rain out of 365. Only 158 days a year outside climatic comfort, that is, with a relative humidity above 70% or below 30 percent.

Summer breeze at 7.2 knots average daily. These are the main average climatic parameters that push the Apulian city to the top of the ranking.

Today, measuring the well-being of the resident population “going beyond GDP per capita”, therefore taking into account not only wealth but the mix of elements that impact the sustainable living of Italians, cannot ignore the climate.

The temperature trend – based on data certified by multiple international sources – confirms that the last decade has been the hottest ever recorded.

“Extreme” climate phenomena, made more frequent by ongoing change, are modifying life expectancy, lifestyles, mortality, migratory movements and so on.

The ranking

For the first time a territory in the South thus conquers the primacy in a synthetic thematic index of the Quality of Life, the historical survey on the most livable Italian territories, displacing Imperia – second today – which had positioned itself at the top in previous editions: the first published in 2019 with data on the decade 2008-2018 and the second published in 2022 with data on the decade 2011-2021.

In addition to the Apulian capital, six other urban centers in the South populate the top ten of climate well-being: in order Barletta-Andria-Trani (3ª), Catania (4ª), Pescara (5ª), Chieti (7ª), Toasts (8ª), Agrigento (9ª), Cagliari (10th). For the rest, in addition to being the capital of western Liguria, it also stands out for the best climate Livorno (6th), the only one from Central Italy among the top ten.

Among the cities with the best climate – mind you, not with the best environmental conditions – the coastal areas stand out, as do some cities at altitude (for example Aosta ed Anna) capable of offering greater comfort thanks to air circulation, compared to internal areas: here the hours of sunshine increase, the heat index remains medium-low, mitigated by the summer breeze, and there are few extreme events.

The precipitation parameter, however, rewards the locations where on average there are fewer rainy days per year, but penalizes the driest ones, applying a negative coefficient in the calculation of the score where there is a deficit in the accumulations compared to the long-term averages. In practice, we are better off where it rains less, but only if this “less rain” does not translate into drought.

Belluno and the Po Valley

On the opposite side, at the bottom of the ranking we find once again Belluno, last in the sunshine index (just 6.7 hours of sunshine per day, against a national average of 7.8) and for cold days (23.6 on average every year with maximum perceived temperature less than 3° C) ; second to last for the high relative humidity, which takes into consideration the days that are too dry in summer (70%), in total 255 in the Venetian capital.

The number of rainy days is also high, 118 per year with at least 2 millimeters of cumulative precipitation, more frequent only in Lecco where the average for the decade reaches 122 days.

Furthermore, in the last ten places in the ranking, there are various centers in the Po Valley which are positioned along the Po axis, including Alexandria (106ª), Pavia (105ª), Cremona (104ª), Piacenza (102ª), Lodi (101ª), Asti (100th) and Ferrara ( 99ª).

In particular Rovigo It is the area with the most foggy days, over 57 per year. Verbania it is last with a greater frequency of extreme rainfall, a total of 90 days between 2013 and 2023 with more than 40 millimeters of cumulative rainfall in at least one half-hourly period.

Those who are penalized for the same indicator – second to last and third to last – are Varese e Aswhere the “water bombs” were 76 and 74 respectively in the decade.

Among the big cities, Cagliari conquers 10th place in the top ten, Roma comes in 25th place, followed by Napoli ( 26ª), Venezia (32nd) and Genova (43rd). All the others, however, meet in the second half of the ranking, last Milano in 86th place.

Extreme climate phenomena

The trend of four extreme events (heat waves, extreme heat events, annual days of rain and extreme precipitation) in the period 2010-2023 in the three geographical macro-areas North, Center and South.

Torrential rain or extreme heat: what happened city by city

The trend of four extreme events (heat waves, extreme heat events, annual days of rain and extreme precipitation) in the period 2010-2023 in 112 Italian capitals, reaggregated on a provincial basis.

Records in urban centers

Finally, reviewing the indicators, other records are highlighted. Syracusewhere in the summer of 2023 an exceptional heat wave reached the all-time high of 47° C, has the highest heat index: 111 days a year with a perceived temperature above 35 degrees.

Terni stands out for the higher average annual frequency of heat waves, a total of 29 exceeding 30° for three consecutive days, the opposite of the positive records of the Ligurian provinces of Savona (2 waves) e Genova (3 waves).

Monthly temperatures, city by city

The difference in average daily temperatures for each month from 2013 to 2023 calculated compared to the average temperatures recorded between 2008 and 2012, in °C

Sondrio it is the least windy area, with only eight days in the decade characterized by gusts of wind and an almost absent summer breeze. Agrigento it is first in sunshine with 9.1 hours of sunshine on average per day. Cataniafinally, it has the lowest number of days per year that are too dry or too humid, just 111.