During the night of 28 to 29 October 2018, the Atlantic wind collided with the sirocco and caused a rare climatic low.

The hurricane named “Vaia” hit northern Italy and was centered in the Trentino Alps, the Triveneto, the Prealps and parts of eastern Lombardy.

It was defined by the Sisef (Italian Society of Silviculture and Forest Ecology) as <<an unprecedented phenomenon in the last 50 years>>.

Its passage is tearing apart the Alpine ecosystem. In total, there are 8.7 million cubic meters of fallen timber covering an area of more than 41,000 hectares.

The winds reached peak values of 200 km/h, and 800 cm of precipitation alone exceeded the floods of 1966.

The low-pressure area is part of the general phenomenon of bad weather over Italy in October-November 2018.

The damage is estimated to total amount of almost 3 billion (2,809,400,000). 

An unprecedented phenomenon in Italy that represents a turning point in the history of our country.

The other side of climate change

A year has now passed since the storm, and it is still difficult to take stock of the actual damage caused by the passage of this Mediterranean hurricane.

The parts of the forest that posed the greatest danger have now been cleared and the greatest damage to the infrastructure has been contained.

However, an estimated 40 per cent of the fallen trees are still waiting to be salvaged. A longer wait would lead to a further devaluation of the price per cubic meter, which had already fallen to a tenth of the market price immediately after the disaster.

Not to mention the costs for the communities. The affected forests will take several decades, if not centuries, to return to their original form.

Time lapse of the event:

The VAIA cyclone is just one expression of the ongoing climate change that will become increasingly widespread in the future.

In view of this fact and the torn Alpine landscapes, it is easy to feel despondency and despair.

However, one can choose to be resilient and learn lessons from these events to implement prevention and environmental protection plans.

Disasters can become new opportunities for social, ecological, and economic growth.

The affected areas have shown great resilience from the outset by implementing cooperative measures and innovative plans to recover from the disaster.

In the months that followed, for example, Pefc launched the “Solidarity Chain” to support the affected areas. 

The projects implemented include numerous measures that have a direct impact on the ground.

This included collecting and selling the tops of large fallen conifers as Christmas trees. The net proceeds were invested in seedlings.

The creation of a solidary and certified supply chain makes it possible to rationalize and speed up timber harvesting that would otherwise be lost, minimizing losses for owners and increasing safety for workers.

The passing of VAIA is no accidental catastrophe: it is a message, a signal of suffering intended to awaken the collective conscience.

A warning that forces us to rethink our relationship with the environment.

We need to shift from a perspective of exploitation to one of synergy and resource recovery.

We just must listen to this call and follow the winds of change towards a more sustainable world.

Curiosity: Why the name ‘Vaia’?

You may have noticed that atmospheric phenomena are often given a name, as if to give them an identity. It is interesting to understand how this works and why this tradition has developed. 

Although they may seem arbitrary, the names are selected according to a list of “reservations” to which the public has access by purchasing their own seat.

According to this system, the names are distributed in alphabetical order and assigned to each event cyclically, starting with the first letter.

Traditionally, the Institute of Meteorology at the Free University of Berlin is the main authority in Europe when it comes to deciding the names of weather events.

They are divided into low-pressure (cyclones) and high-pressure areas (anticyclones).

The price for a low-pressure range is 299 euros, and 199 euros for the high-pressure range.

The process was developed as an original fundraising solution to finance the Ministry’s scientific research following the 2002 funding cuts (the funds required for sustainable and effective research were drastically reduced).

The cyclone was named after VAIA Jakobs, manager of a multinational corporation in Düsseldorf. Her brother wanted to surprise her with this original gift.