It was January 20th. When Harry was raging in the Mediterranean Sea and had unfortunately already arrived in our area. The Mediterranean Sea which actually behaved – say the experts – like a real ocean. A buoy from the Ispra national network, the Higher Institute for Environmental Protection and Research, a government body, recorded a wave almost seventeen meters high, to be precise 16.66 metres, in the Sicilian Channel.
This measurement, from a geomarine point of view, was carried out in the stretch of sea that falls between Portopalo di Capo Passero, the extreme tip of Sicily, and the island of Malta. To understand the extent of the phenomenon, it is enough to say that it is the highest wave ever detected in Europe. This European record previously belonged to Storm Gloria in 2020, which recorded a wave of 14.2 meters off the coast of Spain.
Obviously this was not the only sensational “externalization” of Cyclone Harry at sea, because the entire eastern Sicilian front was hit by impressive waves, as high as 4 and 5-storey buildings, which overwhelmed the coasts with an impressive impact force. But be careful. These phenomena, if we broaden the reference time scale, have already occurred in the past, and have a precise “return time”, even very long, in the order of dozens and dozens of years.
Here is some other data – extrapolated from multiple national networks measuring atmospheric phenomena – which can help us understand the intensity of the assault that the Sicilian thighs have endured. Let’s take for example the “precipitation totals”, the rain that fell, which were defined by the technicians of the Italian Meteorological Society as “exorbitant in the areas most subject to the orographic barrier of strong and humid winds from the East, widely exceeding 300 mm (from 18 to 21 January) on the eastern slopes of Sardinia, Sicily and Calabria”.
As an example, the 523 mm of Fondachelli Fantina, between the Peloritani and Nebrodi mountains, in Messina are cited (data from the Sicilian Civil Protection Network). As for the winds, Sias, the Sicilian agrometeorological information service, reported that January 20th was the windiest day on a regional scale since the beginning of the measurements of its automatic network in 2002, with an average daily speed of 19.5 km/h, although “only” five stations recorded local records for maximum wind speed (including Calascibetta in the Ennese area, with 107 km/h). The highest gust on the island was measured in Novara di Sicilia, in the Messina mountains (130 km/h), although without exceeding the local record of 12 November 2019 (188 km/h).
Another data is that of snowfall. They were impressive above 1700 m on Etna, with around 110 cm of fresh snow at the Citelli Refuge, with a maximum thickness on the ground around 120 cm (data from the Sicilian Civil Protection Network).
All this must make us reflect on an incontrovertible fact in the damage calculation of these hours. The only barrier in the Messina area that resisted this devastation was that of Santa Margherita.
Why? It is “submerged”, that is, as per the Treccani Encyclopedia, a “modular structure in reinforced concrete, laid and placed side by side on the seabed, along a continuous line, parallel to the coast and at a distance of at least one hundred meters from it, with the aim of dissipating the energy of the wave motion, encouraging the flow of sand towards the shore and preventing its return, so as to limit coastal erosion”.
Therefore, alongside the “correct forecast – as explained by the Sicilian Civil Protection -, a few days in advance, of the exceptional weather and sea conditions, and the effective alerting of the authorities and the population by the regional functional centers and the Civil Protection department”, a fact which was fundamental for human lives (no deaths and no injuries), we must reflect on another aspect.
That is, there is no longer any time to entrust different “pieces” of the coast to “do it yourself” depending on the officials on duty and the funding available. Along the entire Messina coast, a unitary intervention is needed, perhaps on the “Santa Margherita model”, to truly secure all that wonderful horizontal line from which we observe the sea every day.