In this season, which unfolds in the arms of an unusually warm sea, we are witnessing a summer that has been a theater of high pressures and an unrelenting sun, burning like an endless furnace.
And still, in this present, temperatures persist in a warm embrace that extends beyond the usual averages.
We find ourselves, these days, facing storms of such intensity that they can be compared, in their devastating fury, to modest hurricanes.
Recently, even a bomb cyclone made its dramatic appearance on the meteorological scene. 
And yet, it seems that the ancient winter, with its icy hands, is just waiting behind the horizon. Will it march into our days? Most likely, yes, and with a sudden and unexpected arrival.
But in this strange repetition of events, there is no trace of exceptionality. No more than a decade ago, the fields of the Po Valley were adorned in white already with the celebrations of the Immaculate Conception, sometimes even earlier.
It was not a timid caress of flakes that melted upon contact with the asphalt, but majestic snowfalls, which transformed the landscape into a kingdom of silent white.
This spectacle took place under the curtain of an autumn that stripped the trees, an image so different from the still bright colors of this year’s foliage, which began to change only under the push of a coolness that is late to arrive.
Instead, the summer aridity, that unbearable heat that burned the vegetation, has given way to this late change, threatening to return again in the imminent summer.
For now, however, we are granted the gift of winter atmospheres that quiver in the cold breezes.
Today’s reflection is a tribute to Milan, witness to the most significant snowfall since the winter of 2012-2013, and, without a doubt, the only one worthy of note in an era that has seen snow become a rare guest in the Po Valley.
In Italy, especially in the North, the drop of the thermometer towards zero in the plains has become a rarity.
Severe frost used to announce itself, in the past, only after the middle of the month, while now there are no omens signaling its approach.
A glimmer of hope comes to us from the Alps, which this year have already dressed in abundant snow, even hinting at the possibility of seeing it descend on the plains.
However, the current climate forecasts that would like to reassure us about “normality” appear increasingly illusory in the face of a climate that has clearly transformed. October has been consumed under atypical heat, recording temperatures that have broken all previous records.
This anomaly joins a September that danced to the same rhythm.
One wonders, therefore: can these extraordinary events, which are defining the climate in many parts of our hemisphere, channel the atmospheric circulation back towards more temperate conditions? It is a question of ponderous relevance, currently lacking definitive answers, as weather and climate forecasts remain hypotheses open to interpretation. With November chasing time, it becomes natural to look to the sky, questioning it about the arrival of the white snowflakes, which, according to statistical tradition, should already be settling on the northern plains in December. And in other places? Certainly, the hills could host snow already in November, not the plains; but with the arrival of December, the scene could undergo a revolution.
If climate trends were to follow current projections, why not hypothesize snowy scenarios? We are not in the tropics, even if the climate shows a tendency towards tropicalization.
Perhaps winter is contracting, but science instructs us that this presages an increase in episodes of intense rigor, those extreme events that surprise us with their unpredictability. Science, through in-depth studies and detailed observations, provides explanations on how global warming can be linked to extreme cold waves.
The prevailing theory holds that global warming is altering atmospheric circulation, including the patterns of the polar vortex.
This phenomenon is a low-pressure area located in the polar regions and, as a result of Earth’s warming, it can weaken or shift.
When this happens, cold air masses that are normally confined to the polar areas can move southward, bringing significantly low temperatures to regions that normally experience milder winters.
Scientific publications from several years ago, even more than a decade, had already begun to notice and document these changes.
It was observed that the increase in global temperatures could paradoxically cause episodes of extreme cold in certain parts of the world, a counterintuitive phenomenon that might seem at odds with the idea of global warming.
Now, with the benefit of further data and a better understanding of climate systems, scientists are able to provide more solid and detailed explanations about how these processes work.
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