Weather & Climate

Climate Type:

Pantelleria's climate is classified as a Mediterranean Climate. Mediterranean winters are often cold and rainy with sunny days scattered throughout. Mediterranean summers are the opposite, as the climate is hot and dry. However, even without much rain, humidity heavily affects the feels. Wind will often affect Pantelleria's climate, as it makes summers and winters cooler (9).

Temperature:

In Pantelleria the temperature is fairly warm all year, usually not dropping too far below 15 degrees Celsius (59 Fahrenheit) in the winter months and not getting too far above 25 degrees Celsius (77 Fahrenheit) in the summer (6).

Precipitation:

Pantelleria has a distinct rain pattern. In the summer months the island is quite dry, on average recieving only 1 mm of rainfall in July. During the winter months there is much more rainfall hovering around 75 mm of rain by October. This leads to Pantelleria having a wet summer and cold winter. As it does not drop below freezing in Pantelleria, there is no snow (6).

This figure shows the average temperature and rainfall in Panetlleria, Italy. The red text and line indicates average temperature for each month, while the blue bars indicate average rainfall for each month (6).

Humidity:

Due to Pantelleria's location on the Mediterranean Sea, humidity is a major aspect of Pantelleria's climate. Pantelleria summers reach a humidity high of 88%, while its winters can reach as low as 0% (8).

Wind Direction:

The wind on the island of Pantelleria most commonly from the north and the west. Between April and October, the island is mostly dominated by northerly winds. In the period between November and April, westerly winds take over the island. (3)

Global Wind Patterns:

On the global scale, the island of Pantelleria is most affected by the westerlies. Local wind patterns also affect the area, including the Sirocco and Mistal winds. The Mistral winds are cold, dry and powerful winds from the north while the Sirocco winds blow from North Africa and create fog and precipitation over the Mediterranean. (5)

Mistral Winds(11)

Sirocco Winds(12)

Air Masses

Just like most parts of the world, this island has ups and downs in its air mass systems. In the months of June, July, August, and September the air gets very heavy with super muggy conditions. This is mainly caused due to the fact that Pantelleria is completely surrounded by the sea. We can also consider the reason that such hot pockets of air may come from the Libyan Desert, where such phenomena typically occur during the first part of May. Following the other months, the air is lighter, which establishes a much more pleasant environment (7).

The image shows a medicane that occurred in the fall of 2021, in which was located between Southern Italy and Tunisia, Africa, which means the medicane came right through Pantelleria Island.

Weather Systems:

The main weather system that affects Pantelleria is called a medicane. These are Mediterranean tropical cyclones, similar to hurricanes. The medicanes' usually occur between the months of September through January. Medicanes' bring to the island high force winds and large amounts of rainfall.

Medicanes are caused by cold air cyclones in non-tropical waters and the systems follows into the Atlantic Basin, in which is an opening to the Mediterranean sea (4).

Temperature & Precipitation Regime:

Pantelleria Island has a hot Mediterranean and a dry-subtropical climate. The average annual temperature on the island is 63.5 degrees Fahrenheit, which results from a marine influence or better known oceanic. For precipitation the island falls in the subtropical midlatitude zones of the globe. The average precipitation for a year on the island is around 28 inches, according to Sicily, Italy, which is fairly close to the island (10).

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