Today
Has it rained enough in Catania?
Four showers have passed over in three weeks. Every one wet the leaves and was gone by lunchtime — none of it reached the roots.
Catania has had 24.6mm of rain in the last 30 days. A normal October here brings 76.7mm, so that is about 32% of what the ground usually gets — and the driest October in 30 years was 4mm.
Rain reaching the roots · 14 days
18 OctToday
Reached the roots
Rain that did not
4 days of 14
Thirty years
Rain in Catania through a normal year
Across a normal year Catania gets about 563.7mm of rain, most of it in October (76.7mm) and least in July (7.6mm).
A normal October in Catania has rain on 11 days. Only 7 of them bring enough to reach a root.
That makes Catania one of the drier places this site covers in Italy in October — 10th of 12, against Genoa at the wet end (184.6mm) and Bari at the dry end (62.3mm).
JFMAMJJulASOctND
Average rainfall by month, 1995–2024
What it means
What that means for what you grow
- Pots and hanging basketsWorst hit, and first to suffer. Very little soil, fully exposed, and nothing to fall back on — in this weather they can empty in a day.
- Salad and leafy vegShallow-rooted and quick to bolt once they run dry. First priority of anything in the ground.
- Beds and bordersA long soak that reaches the roots is worth more than a daily sprinkle, which only wets the surface and is gone by lunchtime.
- Established shrubs and treesFine as they are. They draw from far deeper than a dry spell reaches.