On Monday 22nd March, Dr. Nicolini from Prociv of the Province of Modena visited the Air Force Mountain Centre of Monte Cimone.
Dr Nicolini and her staff work at the Modena Provincial Civil Protection Co-ordinated Centre in Marzaglia, which is equipped with an operations room for emergency management, including a radio room, equipment for real-time monitoring of rainfall and river levels, and a computer system containing databases on the characteristics of the territory and areas at risk. When the need arises for multiple agencies to intervene, the Centre acts as a coordination hub, liaising with municipal and supra-municipal operations centres, joint operations centres, first-response centres and the so-called external ‘assembly areas’ for equipment and rescue personnel. The facility also houses the offices of the Provincial Civil Protection Agency and the Municipality of Modena, as well as the Provincial Council for Civil Protection Volunteering, which brings together all the associations involved in emergency response and prevention activities. A depot for vehicles and equipment has also been set up within the area, whilst a designated area has been prepared to accommodate an emergency camp. Surrounding the complex is a green space of approximately twenty thousand square metres, which allows for the organisation of regular training sessions and drills. The meeting provided an opportunity to exchange experiences, discuss common challenges and explore technological innovations that can be used to carry out measurements and observations useful for an accurate assessment of the weather situation. In addition, the weather conditions that have affected the province in recent months were reviewed and discussed from a technical perspective. The Modena area boasts a prestigious meteorological tradition; as early as the late nineteenth century, it was the first province in Italy to establish a network of rain gauge stations at locations best suited to studying rainfall patterns and river flow. At the time, among the many monitoring points, “the stations at Mirandola, Carpi, Vignola, Zocca, Sestola and Pievepelago were particularly worthy of mention”.
The AM Mountain Centre is an organisation of the Air Force Meteorological Service, dependent on the National Centre for Aeronautics Meteorology and Climatology (CNMCA) in Pratica di Mare (Rome). Its operational activity is mainly carried out at an altitude of 2,165 metres, within the Frignano Park, from where a 360° panorama can be observed, covering almost half of the national territory (120,000 sq km). For almost a century, the activity carried out has concerned the sector of flight assistance, telecommunications, and meteorological and environmental measurements; stratospheric ozone has been measured in Sestola (Modena) since 1975. To date, the maximum wind speed measured on the summit of Monte Cimone has been 216 Km/h (similar to the winds produced by Hurricane Katrina), the minimum temperature was -22.2°C in January 1981, and in the same month the minimum perceived temperature, determined by the combination of wind and temperature, was -43.1°C.
