Climate and natural hazards

Naples and the coast have mild, rainy winters and hot summers, with heatwaves and tropical nights on the rise; the Scirocco brings humidity and sand. The islands and the coasts enjoy a breezier climate. The interior is different: Avellino, Benevento and above all upper Irpinia (Montevergine, Laceno) have cold winters with snow, and the Caserta Matese is mountainous. The Campanian plain and the Agro nocerino have muggy summers. The climate data in this entry refer to the regional capital.

Volcanic risk

Vesuvius is an active volcano quiescent since 1944: Civil Protection has defined a red zone of 25 municipalities in the provinces of Naples and Salerno, plus parts of Naples, Nola and Pomigliano, to be evacuated pre-emptively in case of alarm, and a yellow zone of 63 municipalities exposed to ashfall. The Campi Flegrei (Pozzuoli, Bacoli, Monte di Procida, western districts of Naples) are an active caldera subject to bradyseism: the ground uplift under way since 2005 has been accompanied by rising seismicity since 2023, with shocks up to magnitude 4.6 and over 150 cm of cumulative uplift; the alert level is yellow and an evacuation plan defines a red zone. INGV-Osservatorio Vesuviano publishes weekly bulletins. Ischia suffered an earthquake at Casamicciola on 21 August 2017 and a landslide on 26 November 2022.

Seismic and hydrogeological risk

Irpinia and Sannio are in seismic zone 1: the earthquake of 23 November 1980 (magnitude 6.9) destroyed dozens of villages between Avellino, Salerno and Potenza and was one of the worst in twentieth-century Italy. The Naples area and the coast are in zone 2, with risk aggravated by building density and illegal construction. The mudflows of Sarno and Quindici in May 1998 and the Ischia landslides show the vulnerability of the slopes; the Amalfi coast is prone to rockfalls and road closures. The area between Naples and Caserta known as Terra dei Fuochi is under official health and environmental monitoring for buried waste and fires.