A fragile ecosystem
The Vaia Storm was an extreme meteorological event that affected the Italian northeast (in particular the mountain area of the Dolomites and the Venetian Prealps) from 26 to 30 October 2018. The event is mistakenly known as "storm", but the Scirocco wind has reached "hurricane" speeds, which generally happens only on tropical or subtropical areas of the planet.
The very strong hot sirocco wind, blowing between 100 and 200 km/h for several hours, caused the fall of millions of trees, with the consequent destruction of tens of thousands of hectares of alpine coniferous forests, a real natural disaster.
Scirocco is a warm wind coming from the southeast. This direction is symbolically indicated in the so-called wind rose. More exactly 'srocco' comes from the Arabic word sharqiyya (شرقية) which means 'eastern', since this wind blows from Syria.
The Scirocco wind has become one of the climatic symbols of Sicily and southern regions of Italy and it’s quite uncommon to have it blowing in northern regions of the Country.
The Vaia Storm, in addition to causing considerable direct damage, created the conditions for the spread of Ips thypographus, better known as bostrico typographer, a small beetle naturally present in the spruce woods of the Alps.
The presence of large quantities of damaged plants dispersed in the woods has allowed the populations of bostrico to move from an endemic presence to an epidemic presence.
The small beetle attacks mainly spruce, in which it develops under the bark by digging intricate tunnels, which interrupt the flow of the sap; in this way it inevitably leads to the death of the plants in a short time.
A fragile ecosystem
The Vaia Storm was an extreme meteorological event that affected the Italian northeast (in particular the mountain area of the Dolomites and the Venetian Prealps) from 26 to 30 October 2018. The event is mistakenly known as "storm", but the Scirocco wind has reached "hurricane" speeds, which generally happens only on tropical or subtropical areas of the planet.
The very strong hot sirocco wind, blowing between 100 and 200 km/h for several hours, caused the fall of millions of trees, with the consequent destruction of tens of thousands of hectares of alpine coniferous forests, a real natural disaster.
Scirocco is a warm wind coming from the southeast. This direction is symbolically indicated in the so-called wind rose. More exactly 'srocco' comes from the Arabic word sharqiyya (شرقية) which means 'eastern', since this wind blows from Syria.
The Scirocco wind has become one of the climatic symbols of Sicily and southern regions of Italy and it’s quite uncommon to have it blowing in northern regions of the Country.
The Vaia Storm, in addition to causing considerable direct damage, created the conditions for the spread of Ips thypographus, better known as bostrico typographer, a small beetle naturally present in the spruce woods of the Alps.
The presence of large quantities of damaged plants dispersed in the woods has allowed the populations of bostrico to move from an endemic presence to an epidemic presence.
The small beetle attacks mainly spruce, in which it develops under the bark by digging intricate tunnels, which interrupt the flow of the sap; in this way it inevitably leads to the death of the plants in a short time.