LIGURIA, ITALY: ON AUGUST 18 A SUPERCELL BREAKED DOWN THE OVERPOPAUSE REACHING THE STRATOSPHERE

Those hours experienced by the North West were terrible in the morning of August 18, 2022 when a record disturbance hit Piedmont, Lombardy, Tuscany and Liguria.

And just off the Ligurian coast the instruments registered a record phenomenon at 7:15 am Italian time.

In practice, a cumulonimbus forming a thunderstorm supercell has exceeded 12,000 meters above sea level or the upper limit of these clouds also known as the tropopause, overcoming it and reaching the stratosphere.

The supercell then reached Liguria, Corsica and Tuscany where it produced whipping gusts of wind (downburst) and numerous damages.

In rare cases, cumulonimbus clouds can break through the tropopause as a result of powerful updrafts: a very rare phenomenon and never, in these proportions, in our country.  This is a consequence of the warming of the Ligurian Sea which triggered the formation of the Supercella.