The procession for the feast of Our Lady of the Snows has taken place once again, bringing thousands of the faithful to the summit of Monte Cimone near the small church of the Air Force Base. Organised by the Misericordia brotherhood of Modena, the pilgrimage route this year also touched upon the towns in the Modena lowlands devastated by the May 2012 earthquake, before concluding with the final stretch along the Atmosphere path from Pian Cavallaro, at an altitude of 1,830 metres, up to the summit of Monte Cimone at 2,165 metres above sea level. Mass was celebrated by the parish priest of Pievepelago, Don Luciano Benassi, the military chaplain of the Mountain Air Force Centre, Don Pierino Sacella, and all the priests from the municipalities surrounding Monte Cimone.
Present at the event were Senator Carlo Giovanardi, the Mayors of the municipalities of Sestola, Riolunato, Fiumalbo and Montecreto, the Provincial Commander of the State Forestry Corps of Modena and the Director of the Institute of Atmospheric Sciences and Climate of the National Research Council.
Despite the event taking place on a working day, around two thousand people were present at the summit, undoubtedly helped by the wonderful weather, which saw a record August maximum temperature of 24°C, the highest since weather records began on the mountain.
The Mountain Air Force Centre (CAMM) organised the logistics to ensure the event took place in complete safety, through coordination with the other interested institutions: the Carabinieri, the State Forestry Corps, the Alpine Rescue, the Confraternita di Misericordia of Modena, AVAP, Volunteer Ecological Guards and Volunteers of the Red Cross Military Corps.
The small church of CAMM, which originated from a 1900 project on the initiative of the Roman Committee at the wish of Pope Leo XIII, was consecrated in 1908. In 1937, with the establishment of the Italian Air Force on Monte Cimone, the small church became the property of the Air Force, which has taken care of it ever since. Every 5th August, “Our Lady of the Snows” is celebrated in memory of the famous summer snowfall in Rome in 358 AD at the site where the Basilica of Santa Maria Maggiore was subsequently built.
The Monte Cimone-Sestola (MO) Mountain Air Force Centre, directed by Major Attilio Di Diodato and under the authority of the National Centre for Air Force Meteorology and Climatology in Pratica di Mare (RM), has been operating since 1937, at an altitude of 2,165 m, in the fields of telecommunications and meteorological and environmental measurements. The long historical data series helps to deepen the understanding of climate change in an area far from local pollution phenomena. The measurement of carbon dioxide concentration, which began in 1979, constitutes the longest continuous sampling series in Europe. Stratospheric ozone has been measured at the Sestola Base since 1975.
