Re: Drought in Italy?
 

On Thu, 26 Apr 2007, Deeply Filled Mortician wrote:

> Italy right now is really warm. I mean, it's been much warmer than
> last year, to the point where there wasn't any winter to speak of.

Yes, no winter at all, and little rain or snow on the mountains.
Presently is warmer than average, but not yet so "summer-like" (damp) as
it was in May 2003. However the prediction is for a torrid summer like
2003.

Anyhow the drought is unlike to affect tourists as far water supplies
are concerned, at least here in the North (might be endemic in some
parts of the South or in islands like Elba).

One concern is field irrigation, lack of which might cause increase in
the price of vegetables. Currently there is no particular problem
(Sunday I was on the Naviglio Grande, a canal near Milan, and it was
full of water, and feeding all the minor irrigation canals).

The main concern about the drought is about electricity production.
Thermal power plants are located along rivers, and use water for
cooling. If the river level gets too low they cannot take water out.
On the other hand hydroelectric plants are in the mountains, and they
try to keep water in their reservoirs. So, blackouts (even "programmed
blackouts") are possible if the power demand goes up, as it will do in
June if it gets too hot, and people start using their air conditioning.

> Having said that, I don't know of anywhere that river cruising is
> popular in Italy.

There aren't many navigable rivers, and no place where overnight
cruising is practised. Navigation on the major lakes (Maggiore, Como.
Iseo, Garda) is popular, and is presently unaffected by drought (but
some of the lakes are already going below the hydrometric zero ... that
could cause difficulty in landing at piers ... no more since those lakes
can be as deep as 300 m). There are some tourist navigation lines on Po,
Mincio near Mantova and up to the Lagoon and Venice, and near Venice on
Brenta.

Navigation on minor canals is not a real opportunity, it fell out of
practice before the '60s or even earlier. Sunday at Gaggiano on the
Naviglio Grande I met a little team with 4 or 5 little boats wanting to
go by water from Locarno to Venice. According to the TV, in many places
they have difficulties because of dams used for irrigation or power
plants. Sluices do not exist or are not operated, and they had to lift
the boats with a crane.

> popular in Italy. Sure as hell you won't be wanting to go on the Pò,

Please do NOT put ANY accent on the name "Po", the river. It is not
needed as it is a monosyllable, and is unambiguous. The other "po'"
(short for "poco", i.e. "a little") is written with an apostrophe.

However one writes the accent on the name of the region "Oltrepò" (i.e.
"beyond the Po", the lombard area south of Pavia renowned for the
wines), because it is a polisyllable, and accented on the last
("tronca").

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Re: Drought in Italy?
 

Make credence recognised that on Fri, 27 Apr 2007 10:15:39 +0200,
Martin <[email protected]> has scripted:

>On Fri, 27 Apr 2007 00:08:54 +0200, Deeply Filled Mortician
><deepfreudmoors@eITmISaACTUALLYiREAL!l.nu> wrote:
>
>>Make credence recognised that on Thu, 26 Apr 2007 21:31:41 GMT,
>>"Gregory Morrow" <[email protected]> has scripted:
>>
>>>
>>>Deeply Filled Mortician wrote:
>>>
>>>> Italy right now is really warm. I mean, it's been much warmer than
>>>> last year, to the point where there wasn't any winter to speak of.
>>>> People here are talking of the hottest summer ever, and I wouldn't be
>>>> one bit surprised if that happens.
>>>
>>>
>>>So you'll finally get aircon or at least window screens so the mozzies won't
>>>bite at night...???
>>
>>We don't get mozzies here. We're on the 4th floor, so they don't reach
>>us.
>
>Belgian mozzies can easily reach the tenth floor. Are Italian mozzies flight
>qualified?

No, they're just too lazy!

zzzzz
zzzz zzzzz
Buzzzzz zz...awe bugger it, I'll eat this cat
instead.
--
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DFM - http://www.deepfriedmars.com
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Re: Drought in Italy?
 

Am Fri, 27 Apr 2007 10:43:33 +0200 schrieb Martin:

> Other than warnings on German TV of the high risk of woodland fires.

ACK, but that wouldn't really bother the OP, if he is planning a
River-cruise ;-)

Regards,

Frank

Re: Drought in Italy?
 

On Fri, 27 Apr 2007 11:38:58 +0200, Frank Hucklenbroich
<[email protected]> wrote:

>Am Fri, 27 Apr 2007 10:43:33 +0200 schrieb Martin:
>
>> Other than warnings on German TV of the high risk of woodland fires.
>
>ACK, but that wouldn't really bother the OP, if he is planning a
>River-cruise ;-)

The warning I saw was related to the Rhine Valley, where film of a fire in the
woodland was shown.

The Rhine in Flames will be every night and more realistic this year? :-)
http://www.rlp-info.de/index.php?idi6&L=2
--

Martin

Re: Drought in Italy?
 

"Martin" <[email protected]> wrote in message
news:[email protected]...
> Belgian mozzies can easily reach the tenth floor. Are Italian mozzies
> flight
> qualified?
> --
Ask Mixi. He has the flight simulator.

Cheers,
George W Russell
Bangalore

Re: Drought in Italy?
 

On Fri, 27 Apr 2007 16:02:12 +0530, "grusl" <[email protected]> wrote:

>
>"Martin" <[email protected]> wrote in message
>news:[email protected].. .
>> Belgian mozzies can easily reach the tenth floor. Are Italian mozzies
>> flight
>> qualified?
>> --
>Ask Mixi. He has the flight simulator.

and a bee in the bonnet.

I have resisted the temptation to subscribe to the groups he posts too. I had
got feelings of deja vu, when I read most of his posts.
--

Martin

Re: Drought in Italy?
 

"Martin" <[email protected]> wrote in message
news:[email protected]...
> On Fri, 27 Apr 2007 16:02:12 +0530, "grusl" <[email protected]>
> wrote:
>
>>
>>"Martin" <[email protected]> wrote in message
>>news:[email protected]. ..
>>> Belgian mozzies can easily reach the tenth floor. Are Italian mozzies
>>> flight
>>> qualified?
>>> --
>>Ask Mixi. He has the flight simulator.
>
> and a bee in the bonnet.
>
> I have resisted the temptation to subscribe to the groups he posts too. I
> had
> got feelings of deja vu, when I read most of his posts.
> --

Well I was already subscribing to r.t.air but it is increasingly insane and
US-centric. And alt.disasters.aviation was a wonderful old group even when
it was insane. In the olden days our friend would have been boiled alive
there.

Cheers,
George W Russell
Bangalore

Re: Drought in Italy?
 

On Fri, 27 Apr 2007 16:21:04 +0530, "grusl" <[email protected]> wrote:

>
>"Martin" <[email protected]> wrote in message
>news:[email protected].. .
>> On Fri, 27 Apr 2007 16:02:12 +0530, "grusl" <[email protected]>
>> wrote:
>>
>>>
>>>"Martin" <[email protected]> wrote in message
>>>news:[email protected] ...
>>>> Belgian mozzies can easily reach the tenth floor. Are Italian mozzies
>>>> flight
>>>> qualified?
>>>> --
>>>Ask Mixi. He has the flight simulator.
>>
>> and a bee in the bonnet.
>>
>> I have resisted the temptation to subscribe to the groups he posts too. I
>> had
>> got feelings of deja vu, when I read most of his posts.
>> --
>
>Well I was already subscribing to r.t.air but it is increasingly insane and
>US-centric. And alt.disasters.aviation was a wonderful old group even when
>it was insane. In the olden days our friend would have been boiled alive
>there.

He was battered here.

I noticed him having his usual rant against Airbus Industries, I suggested he
applied for a job with them once, when he was having a rant about all IT experts
being unemployed in France. I guess that you guessed he didn't.
--

Martin

Re: Drought in Italy?
 

On 26/04/07 20:30, in article [email protected], "Tom Peel"
<[email protected]> wrote:

> This April has been the driest and hottest on record in Germany

It has not rained a drop in Paris in April


The only water falling is from a 6th floor maid's room in our building
to the 5th floor.

Re: Drought in Italy?
 

On Fri, 27 Apr 2007 10:27:02 +0200, Frank Hucklenbroich
<[email protected]> wrote:

>Am Thu, 26 Apr 2007 11:41:25 -0400 schrieb Viking:
>
>> Reports of drought in other places (Austria? Germany?) that might
>> affect, among other things, river cruising?
>
>Here in Germany, it's unusually hot for this time of the year, about 30
>degrees C right now. We didn't have any bigger amount of rain for the last
>4 weeks, so there is some kind of drought. Though it really only affect the
>farming, they have to water their crops now (which is normally not
>neccecary in April, as it rains a lot in this month). Besides that, there
>is no big effect of it (people enjoying the sunshine). So don't expect any
>big drought.
>
>> We've been considering a
>> river cruise, but some years ago ran into a situation where the cruise
>> operator (Uniworld) was cutting short cruises due to drought.
>
>When do you want to go? The situation can always change on very short
>notice (it just takes a few days of rainfall).
>At least here on the Rhine (Cologne) ships are going normally, according
>to:
>http://www.k-d.com/

Frank: I forgot you're in Cologne--that's our favorite German city.
Best cathedral as well. But the last few times we've been there, it
somehow seems to be getting more and more crowded--hard to park, hard
even to walk in some places! The area around the Dom and Bahnhof seem
always full of people.

Re: Drought in Italy?
 

On Fri, 27 Apr 2007 11:38:58 +0200, Frank Hucklenbroich
<[email protected]> wrote:

>Am Fri, 27 Apr 2007 10:43:33 +0200 schrieb Martin:
>
>> Other than warnings on German TV of the high risk of woodland fires.
>
>ACK, but that wouldn't really bother the OP, if he is planning a
>River-cruise ;-)

River cruises are ver sensitive to water level, and if, as someone
else has posted, the Rhine is down nearly 2 meters, that would mean
we're bot going to sign up for any river cruising this year...even if
things look good now, they might be bad later, and the cruise
companies substitute buses--with no refund option.

Re: Drought in Italy?
 

Make credence recognised that on Fri, 27 Apr 2007 10:44:09 +0200,
Giovanni Drogo <[email protected]> has scripted:

>On Thu, 26 Apr 2007, Deeply Filled Mortician wrote:

>> popular in Italy. Sure as hell you won't be wanting to go on the Pò,
>
>Please do NOT put ANY accent on the name "Po", the river. It is not
>needed as it is a monosyllable, and is unambiguous. The other "po'"
>(short for "poco", i.e. "a little") is written with an apostrophe.

My bad. I could have sworn there was an accent, but then I'm not very
good with them!

Actually, I was recently commenting on how I was feeling confident
with my Italian, until someone pointed out I'd just made couple of
mistakes!
--
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DFM - http://www.deepfriedmars.com
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Re: Drought in Italy?
 

Viking wrote:
> On Thu, 26 Apr 2007 20:30:47 +0200, Tom Peel <[email protected]>
> wrote:
>
>
>>Viking schrieb:
>>
>>>Just reading in the US that a massive drought was feared in Italy--the
>>>story was unclear if it was part of Italy or all of it.
>>>
>>>This is the first I've heard of it--anyone know anything further?
>>>Reports of drought in other places (Austria? Germany?) that might
>>>affect, among other things, river cruising? We've been considering a
>>>river cruise, but some years ago ran into a situation where the cruise
>>>operator (Uniworld) was cutting short cruises due to drought.
>>>
>>>Thanks in advance for any info.
>>
>>This April has been the driest and hottest on record in Germany. The
>>Rhine is running about 2 metres below its usual level. Temperature
>>yesterday in the lower Rhineland hit 30c. The forest fire risk is at 4.5
>>on a scale of 1 to 5.
>
>
> Wow. Thanks Tom.
>


On the other hand, it's been cold and wet in Spain.

T.

Re: Drought in Italy?
 

Viking wrote:
> On Fri, 27 Apr 2007 11:38:58 +0200, Frank Hucklenbroich
> <[email protected]> wrote:
>
>
>>Am Fri, 27 Apr 2007 10:43:33 +0200 schrieb Martin:
>>
>>
>>>Other than warnings on German TV of the high risk of woodland fires.
>>
>>ACK, but that wouldn't really bother the OP, if he is planning a
>>River-cruise ;-)
>
>
> River cruises are ver sensitive to water level, and if, as someone
> else has posted, the Rhine is down nearly 2 meters, that would mean
> we're bot going to sign up for any river cruising this year...even if
> things look good now, they might be bad later, and the cruise
> companies substitute buses--with no refund option.

On the bright side, the Rhine has some beautiful beaches when the
water runs low, like it did a few years back...

T.

Re: Drought in Italy?
 

Make credence recognised that on Sat, 28 Apr 2007 15:36:51 +0200, Tom
Peel <[email protected]> has scripted:

>On the other hand, it's been cold and wet in Spain.

Still tediously glorious here, with sunny 16 to 21 deg every day.
Storms are due in a few days though. Whoopee!!!
--
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DFM - http://www.deepfriedmars.com
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