Severe storms linked to a deep upper air trough, formed from the ex-hurricane Erin, lashed parts of western and southern Europe last week.
Italy was hit by a deluge of severe rain on Thursday that caused flooding in the Lombardy region. The commune of Busto Arsizio was badly affected, with more than 100mm of rain and frequent lightning.
Heavy rain continued into Friday, leading to a landslide near the town of Baveno in north-western Italy, while farther east, in the town of Padua, 56.9mm of rain fell in only 78 minutes.
The downpours spread to Slovenia, where 79mm of rain recorded near the town of Logatec within two hours caused localised flooding.
France also faced large hail, heavy rain and powerful winds. Seven tornadoes were confirmed by the European Severe Weather Database across France on Friday, four of which were in the Nouvelle Aquitaine region.
Two of these reached IF1 status on the international Fujita scale, which suggests instantaneous wind at about 40mph (64km/h). These speeds were estimated by the damage caused to infrastructure, trees and crops.
On Saturday, a surface low and an upper air trough caused hailstorms to develop widely in Italy. Large stones measuring 20-30mm fell in Umbria, Abruzzo, Molise and Puglia. A 92mm stone was found in the town of Guglionesi, Molise.
As hail, and notably large hail, is often irregular in shape, the diameter is taken as the longest axis of the stone. In Umbria, the largest confirmed stone was 60mm. Rainfall totals of 31mm were also recorded here within just 36 minutes.
