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You're wrong. The normal sea temperature in the northern Adriatic in winter is usually above 10c/50F, although I know that the Croatian part freezes during strong coldwaves (the isolated parts surrounded by mainland).
Nights are definitely cooler. No snowfall data, it's probably more snow prone, I'd curious if data is available.
Parma averages around 40-45 cm of snow, but there are snowier (and colder in winter) areas in the Po Plain. The Adriatic sea does not have a great influence on the temps because of its small size, its low depth and its relatively low temperature in winter.
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Yea it looks like the mountains block the sea on the west coast. The Mediterrean Sea overall could make regional air masses warmer, though. Here's what the climate is on the other side of the Alps:
47°N, 14 inches. Winters aren't really any colder than northern Italy. Atlantic influence kills any snow. Latitude and snowfall is almost identical to Seattle. The difference is the oceanic influence reaches much further because the mountains are east-west rather than north-south. You'd need an airflow not from the north, which would pass over seas on its way from the arctic, but from the east or northeast to get cold enough air.
You're right. It's fairly obvious that a place like Portland gets more snow than everywhere on the Italian coasts: we don't have a freezing continent to the north-northwest, but a warm ocean. On the other hand, when cold air masses from the east instead of the west come to the Mediterranean Sea, all the Adriatic coast on the Italian side and the Appennines receive massive snowstorms.
The Black Sea froze last winter, not the Adriatic. The Danube river froze over almost completely.
But now to Rimini. March to October are very good, but winters are poor. I prefer snowfall and frost to 8C and cloudy. Sunshine good and precipitation excellent.
B-
Yes the Adriatic basically never frozen, except for a thin strip along the coast only in rare cold snaps, and didn't froze last winter.
I agree about the winter, in Rimini is a dull season, with some moderate rainfalls and occasional sunshine, a bit cold weather, and, generally, a few snowfalls. I would define it a "grey season".
Northern Adriatic Sea has a low depth, about 30 to 50 metres, and its influence are quite low both on temperatures (+1,6 in january than Bologna, 110 km north-west of Rimini) and snowfall averages. The Atlantic influence obviously is not the same as Ireland, UK, France, Belgium...these countries have very mild winters and low snowfalls for their latitude, even considering Europe.
The Alps don't stop completely artic or siberian cold air; the cold air flows towards the Mediterranean from the Rhone valley in France and from the Bora valley in Slovenia.
The average snowfall for Rimini is not particularly low compared to other italian cities located on the plains, except from the Piedmont and Emilia area (Asti, Alessandria, Piacenza, Parma, Modena). The city is basically not sheltered from cold winds (Liguria is strongly sheltered by the mountains and the whole tirrenic side is quite sheltered by the Apennines), but it's funny that the bora, a katabatic strong wind from Slovenia, usually turns snow into rain when cold air flows towards Emilia-Romagna and Veneto, but only for about 5-15 km inland. And that's why Rimini has a low average snowfall.
When we don't get bora, or in case of extremely siberian frigid air, we may have huge snowfalls.
Additionally, the proximity of the Apennines on the south-west side of the city, like all the main cities of Emilia-Romagna region, often produces strong orographic lifting and heavy precipitations in case of eastern or north-eastern winds, generated by the cyclones that usually form over the Tyrrhenian when the cold air impact on the relatively warm sea. For this reason, the plain area along the hills in Piedmont and Emilia-Romagna is one of the snowiest areas of the entire Po Plain, but coastal areas like Rimini "suffers" of bora winds and its melting effect.
A typical effect of bora is: first snow with accretions with NW winds, then rain and snow mixed, then snow again, snow mixed, heavy rain, then warm dry air from the bora, and finally all is melted. With an accretion of 5-15 cm, but all quickly melted.
The Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer (MODIS) aboard the Aqua satellite captured this true-color image of snow in Italy on February 24 at 12:35 UTC (1:30 p.m. local time).
In the north of the image, bright white clouds blanket the region in a broad arc. Snow, which tends to be generally less bright that clouds, covers the Alps in the north of Italy. The Apennine Mountains, which form the backbone of the Italian peninsula, also carry a blanket of snow. Although clouds and snow can, at times, be distinguished visually in a true-color image, sometimes they can appear very similar. When it is important to clearly define snow from cloud, false color images are often helpful.
Rome, which can be seen as a gray smudge on the southwestern coast of the peninsula, recorded highs of a spring-like 50°F the day this image was captured, but earlier in the month the temperatures dove as low as 26°F on February 5. During that cold snap a rare intense snowfall blanketed Rome, causing the closure of the Colosseum, the Roman Forum and the Palatine Hill due to concerns of the risk of icy footing for tourists, and roads became impassible. Further north, temperatures plummeted to −21 °C (−6 °F) on 7 February.
On February 11, news media reported over 2 meters (6.5 feet) of snow had fallen in Urbino, a walled town situated on a high sloping hillside on the eastern side of the Apennine Mountains. That same snowfall cut access to many remote towns in the Apennines, blocking roads and trapping some people in the homes.
46°N. Mean temperatures 2°F cooler than Rimini, just slightly cloudier. Winters are much wetter than Rimini, but still less snow with annual average of 3 inches. Further north (49°N), Bellingham averages 4 inches.
Adjacent to the sea and mountains block incursion of cold air, which would have to come from the less usual (easterly) direction anyway. There's probably somewhere similarly almost snow-free in NW France or the British Isles.
Check this out. Image of the day of February 24th, 2012 of snow in Italy..
In this case (February, 2012 cold siberian wave) Rimini got snow from Feb 3rd to Feb 7th, all melted on 9th, and then again from Feb 10th to Feb 12th. A few days after the last snowfall, there was no snow on the ground, even Feb 15th or 16th, whilst snowcover lasted for more days on the coldest areas of the Emilia plains. You may note Cesena and Forlì with snow on the ground. In Tuscany there was no snow at all.
The image however shows the general scheme of snow on the Po Valley: southern areas, near the Apennines (Piacenza, Parma), receive a lot of snow compared to the northern areas (Milan, Brescia), that are more sheltered from the Alps and that receive a good amount of precipitations only in case of southern winds, which may generate orographic lifting towards the Alps.
But south-eastern winds from the mediterranean cyclones which usually form on the Tyrrhenian don't affect for many days northern areas, while can affect for many days Central Italy and Emilia-Romagna. So, areas around Milan or Turin are colder than others but don't usually get much snow; on the contrary, the area along the Apennines get important snowfalls, as the Adriatic side (except for the coasts).
Hi everyone, I'm Italian and I live in Rimini, Emilia-Romagna, a city on the border between Northern and Central Italy, on the Adriatic Coast, at 44°0 N.
Its climate is a blend of Cfa and Csa (like Florence, rainfall in summer is mainly due to convection, with a few strong thunderstorms), in hardiness zone 9a. Snowfall is not very frequent and snow rarely lasts on the ground for more than one day.
I would rate B+ this climate: maybe too chilly and cloudy in winter but overall mild, comfortable, with sunny and warm summers and not too rainy. I'd like to know what do you think about it!
mar89, thanks for posting this! I am hoping to someday visit the Marche region of Italy on a vacation, and this is most helpful.
D, winters are too mild, summers are OK but too warm and they seem kinda humid.
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