The River Po, Italy's longest river at over 650 kilometres, is in total crisis. Its water level has fallen below the hydrometric zero. At the Ponte della Becca, in the province of Pavia, it is showing a water deficit of 2.5 metres — more than a metre below the same period last year.

The high-pressure system gives the Po no respite

"The ever-present high-pressure system and dry air masses arriving from North Africa and reaching our regions" are not helping, according to 3Bmeteo.com meteorologist Francesco Nucera. "Spring 2017 — warm but also unproductive in terms of rainfall, especially in the first part — ranks second only to that of 2007." This situation, however, is part of a continuum with an autumn and winter that saw "Atlantic rain-bearing fronts reach Italy in dribs and drabs."

Italian agriculture is in difficulty

According to Coldiretti — which, with one and a half million members, is the leading organisation of agricultural entrepreneurs at national and European level — the Po is at a level equal to, if not lower than, that of the summer season. It should be noted, in fact, that summer only begins on 21 June. "2017 does not appear to be heading for the top of the ranking of worst years, which all belong to the 1990s — at least for now. But "the current year," Nucera concludes, "can be placed among the five with the greatest water deficit, with certain areas requiring close attention, such as the Po Valley, the Tyrrhenian coasts of central Italy and Sardinia."