Watering gardens in Florence, Tuscany

Water today

It is 5 days since any rain reached the roots.

Updated this morning
Today

Has it rained enough in Florence?

Rain soaked properly in 5 days ago, and the ground is still holding some of it.

Florence has had 12.2mm of rain in the last 30 days. A normal October here brings 103.6mm, so that is about 12% of what the ground usually gets — and the driest October in 30 years was 7.1mm.

Rain reaching the roots · 14 days
17 OctToday
Reached the roots Rain that did not one day of 14
Thirty years

Rain in Florence through a normal year

Across a normal year Florence gets about 935mm of rain, most of it in November (130.7mm) and least in July (27.7mm).

A normal October in Florence has rain on 13 days. Only 10 of them bring enough to reach a root.

That makes Florence one of the wetter places this site covers in Italy in October — 5th of 12, against Genoa at the wet end (184.6mm) and Bari at the dry end (62.3mm).

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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.