ROME - Snow fell over central Italy Thursday night, covering locations such as Bologna, the mountains of Piedmont, Alto Mugello, and even reaching areas of low altitude.

 It seems winter is not yet over as incoming cold air heightens the chance of widespread sub-zero temperatures. Italy is expected to face a particularly cold snap beginning on Sunday evening and lasting around four days, coming to a close on Thursday. Between Monday and Tuesday, Italy can expect to see temperatures dropping dramatically to around 10 degrees lower than the seasonal average, with possible lows of - 8 degrees.

 The forecast wind is likely to add further intensity to the sudden patch of cold weather and may result in the temperature seeming as low as -15 degrees. Such temperatures in the early months of the year have not occurred in Italy since 2012 or 1985.

 The cold air reportedly comes from Siberia, and will have travelled around 5,800 kilometres before reaching Italy.

 Bernardo Gozzini, director of the LaMMA Consortium, puts the predicated cold period down to “the weakening of the vortex that is located above the north pole.”

 Gozzini, also noted that Italy is also likely to experience an additional period of unusually cold weather during the first half of March, following the invasion of a new mass of “icy air” and clarified that “the intensity of the phenomenon will be evaluated in the coming days.”

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