Rain Above Vernazza

How much rain the model puts on the steep slopes where the Vernazzola's floods are born — and what it expects next. Not a flood warning.

Vernazza's worst floods come down the Vernazzola — the stream that drops off the steep slopes behind the village, runs under Via Roma in a covered channel, and empties at the harbour. On 25 October 2011, about 542 mm of rain fell in roughly six hours on these hills; the stream and a hundred small landslides buried Via Roma and Piazza Marconi under metres of mud, and three people in the village died. Rain over the harbour tells you little. What matters is how much is falling up on the slopes, where the water gathers. This page reads a weather model at three points — from the ridge down to the village — so you can see what's been falling where the floods are born, and what the model expects next. It is not a flood warning.

The real warnings come by radio

Flood warnings here come from Regione Liguria's civil-protection alert system, which ARPAL issues by zone — Vernazza sits in Zona E, the eastern Ligurian basins. When an orange or red alert is out, the Comune and Protezione Civile may close schools and the waterfront. Keep an eye on the official alert at allertaliguria.regione.liguria.it and follow what the Comune di Vernazza says. If water is rising in the Vernazzola channel or on Via Roma, move to higher ground first and check this page later.

Autumn is the high-risk season

October and November bring the heavy, fast Mediterranean rainstorms that this coast floods on — the 2011 disaster was 25 October. On a wet autumn day, check Liguria's official alert level before anything else.

What the rain model says

Almost no rain has fallen along this stretch of the catchment in the last two days.

The model expects almost no rain along this stretch over the next two days.

These are weather-model estimates of rain, not measurements — and rain figures are never a flood forecast.

The water’s path

From the high slopes down to town — the order the water travels. Rain up top can reach the valley hours later; rain in town says little about what is coming downstream.

The ridge above Vernazza (around 500 m)

The steep upper slopes and terraces behind the village, around the Madonna di Reggio path, where the Vernazzola's water first gathers. On ground this steep, rain runs off fast.

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Rain, last two days

almost no rain

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Next two days, expected

almost no rain

The valley behind the village (around 250 m)

The narrow valley the stream runs down toward town. What falls on the ridge passes through here on its way to the village.

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Rain, last two days

almost no rain

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Next two days, expected

almost no rain

Vernazza village (sea level)

Where the Vernazzola runs under Via Roma in a covered channel before reaching the harbour — the stretch that overwhelmed in 2011.

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Rain, last two days

almost no rain

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Next two days, expected

almost no rain

What this page can and cannot tell you

Every figure here is a weather model’s estimate for an area, not a rain gauge and not a river gauge. The model works on a coarse grid — one mountain valley can catch a storm the model spreads across the whole slope, or misses.

“On October 25th, in a few hours, it was washed away by torrential rains and an avalanche of mud, dirt, and debris.”
— Silvia Moggia, who grew up in Vernazza, on the 2011 flood (silvias-trips.com)

That experience is the honest frame for this page. Heavy rain on the mountains is a reason to be more watchful; calm skies are never a promise of safety. This page can add context — it can never replace the warning chain above.

Updated 13 June at 23:33. Rainfall figures are model estimates from Open-Meteo (CC BY 4.0), read at the points named above; high-slope points use an elevation setting so the model downscales to that height. No river-level gauge feeds this page — none is publicly available here.