Avellino (Avell'ino in Irpino dialect) is an Italian town of 53 435 inhabitants, the capital of the province of the same name in Campania. The settlement was born after the Roman Avellino, Abellinum, in the territory of Atripalda, was abandoned.
Avellino is located in the flatter part of the
so-called Avellino basin, a large valley of volcanic origin in the
Campania Apennines, surrounded to the east by Mount Tuoro (located
in the territory of Chiusano di San Domenico), to the south-east by
the Picentini mountain range ( near Serino) and north-west from the
majestic Montevergine massif, which reaches a maximum altitude of 1
493 meters and overlooks the municipalities of Mercogliano,
Ospedaletto d'Alpinolo and Summonte. To the west, the Apennine chain
reaches lower altitudes (Monte Esca 872 m, Monteforte Irpino,
Faliesi 955 m in the municipality of Contrada), until it reaches
hilly heights on the southern side (the border here is the hill on
which Aiello del Sabato rises, 425 m ). The city is crossed by the
Rigatore, the San Francesco and the Fenestrelle, tributaries of the
Sabato, very impoverished and partly underground waterways.
The surroundings of the urban center are lush with vegetation:
hazelnut cultivation prevails.
The municipal
territory of Avellino is part of the seismic district of Irpinia. On
the occasion of the 1980 earthquake there were, in the city of
Avellino alone, 72 dead, several hundred injured and 7421 homeless.
Seismic classification: zone 2 (medium seismicity).
The climate of Avellino is temperate, affected by the
influence of the Tyrrhenian Sea, but has considerably more
continental features than the coastal Campania. This is due to the
absence of large mountain barriers in the north-south direction,
which makes the Avellino basin as a whole exposed to both the
hot-humid southern currents of Libeccio and Scirocco coming from the
Gulf of Salerno (as the crow flies about 27 km away from the city),
both to the cold and dry north currents of Bora. The Partenio
mountain range prevents the influx of Tyrrhenian air from the Gulf
of Naples and creates a powerful stau effect in the presence of
western currents, helping to make the area particularly rainy, with
peaks of 1600 mm on average per year at the meteorological station
of the sanctuary of Montevergine . The marked temperature range (18
° C difference between the average temperature of the coldest month
and that of the hottest month) brings the Avellino climate closer to
continental climates, however in reality both the thermal data and
the pluviometric trend, characterized by the latter from a maximum
between the end of autumn and the beginning of winter and a
prolonged summer drought, they bring the climate of Avellino,
according to the classification of Köppen, into the category of the
Mediterranean climate.
However, it should be noted that the
particular morphological and orographic conformation of the
territory means that there are relatively significant differences in
temperature and rainfall even within a few kilometers; for example
the western area of the basin, the one closest to the Partenio
chain (the city center, the Valle hamlet and the neighboring
municipalities of Mercogliano and Monteforte Irpino), has higher
rainfall, snowfalls are more abundant, summer storms are more
frequent, but the temperature range is less. In this area, thanks to
the altitude and southern exposure, the air is drier and there are
only occasional or almost absent fogs and mists. The south-eastern
area (essentially corresponding to the middle valley of Sabato),
which includes the lower part of the city (Borgo Ferrovia and
Pianodardine) together with the industrial nucleus and the
neighboring municipality of Atripalda (but also, moving away from
the capital and going up the course of Sabato, the small plain where
the municipality of San Michele di Serino stands), being located in
a valley floor, it presents more marked temperature variations, both
daily and annual, recording generally higher maximum temperatures
and lower minimum temperatures: the phenomenon thermal inversion,
which occurs in stable weather conditions (clear sky, no wind),
means that in this area the minimum temperatures are on average
lower than those of the higher areas, and in autumn and winter it is
often cause of fogs and mists during the coldest hours of the night
and early morning. However, rainfall is usually lower (especially in
spring-summer), this being the area furthest from the mountain
ranges. In recent years, due to overbuilding, the effect of
nighttime radiation has been much more attenuated, especially in the
most central districts of the city.
The Avellino winter is cool with an average temperature of the
coldest month of about 6 ° C; the average of the lows of the coldest
month is about 2-3 degrees, while that of the highs is around 10 °
C. During this season, mild and rainy days alternate with colder but
mostly dry days. The latter occur when the cold winds from the
North-East blow, they always record temperatures below 10 °, even
6-7 degrees lower than the coastal localities of the Region, which
with the currents see very sunny days. On the contrary, for Avellino
these are irregularly cloudy days with more compact densities in the
East and near the mountainous areas, with more or less wide openings
in the sky only on the most western and southern sectors of the
territory, those bordering the Neapolitan and Salerno areas. The
first, on the other hand, occur when the winds come from the west or
south-west, channeling from the Tyrrhenian Sea and going up the
course of the Irno Valley; in this kind of situations, in addition
to often abundant rainfall, relatively high temperatures (above 15 °
even in the coldest month, January) are recorded in the city center,
which do not differ much from those of the coastal resorts.
Snowfalls are a phenomenon that occurs almost annually, but with
usually modest accumulations in the city center, a little more
significant in the surrounding hilly areas. There were, however,
exceptional events such as the one that occurred on the night of
February 3, 2012, when about 50 cm of snow fell in the center of
Avellino.
The intermediate seasons are short and have a
marked variability, always dictated by the alternation of currents;
the rainfall is however more accentuated in autumn than in spring.
Although in the months of May and October, maximums of 30 ° C are
reached, the real good season is from June to September: it is a hot
and sunny period, with an average temperature in July and August
(the hottest months) of about 23 ° C in the flatter sectors, which
are also those most sheltered from summer storms, which in any case
are not very frequent, coming from the Apennines. It is a summer
with distinctly Mediterranean connotations, with high temperatures
and scarce rains, without however suffering from drought as happens
in other areas of the South. The Azores anticyclone and the African
subtropical anticyclone guarantee, as in all of Campania, conditions
of stable and sunny weather for a long time, leading to temperatures
even higher than 35 ° C and sometimes to high humidity rates. On
average there are about 20 days a year in which a maximum
temperature of over 32 degrees is recorded. However, if during the
heat waves the maximums can be even higher than the coastal ones,
where the mitigating action of the sea occurs, on the other hand the
minimum temperatures are lower and rarely exceed 20 ° C, thus
guaranteeing, in general, a possibility of nighttime refreshment
unknown to the coastal cities.
In recent years, however, the
massive urbanization of the city and neighboring municipalities has
caused a general increase in the average summer temperature
(especially as regards the minimum), so much so that in the last
decade the absolute average of the hottest month has more vintages
exceeded 24 °, reaching even 25.8 ° in August 2017; in that hot
summer the highest temperature ever was measured, 42.4 ° C on August
4th. Therefore, also in Avellino, as in nearby Naples, the overall
average annual temperature has increased, so much so that it now
stands steadily above 14 ° C, a value that in the thirty years
1960-1990 had only been close to.