This is how Trentino Alto Adige became the driest region in Italy.

The alarm comes from ANBI, the national association representing Italian land reclamation and irrigation consortia, which cites findings from the CNR (National Research Council): over the past year, Trentino-Alto Adige has become the driest region in Italy, with 12 percent of its territory experiencing the highest percentage of severe-extreme drought.

The phenomenon is linked to a series of factors that contribute to creating dangerous conditions for the agricultural areas of Trentino-Alto Adige. The first is the cooling temperatures, with late frosts and snowfall above 1.500 meters in the Alps and Apennines. Second, the rapid melting of late snowfall has prevented it from providing a lasting supply of water for summer irrigation. While the national deficit in snow reserves, due to the climate crisis, was 48 percent, the Adige area reached 56 percent and the Brenta basin 74 percent. 

The main risks to agriculture in Trentino-Alto Adige concern water, crop yields, and the stability of Alpine ecosystems.

The most exposed crops are:

• apples;
• vineyards;
• small fruits;
• mountain pastures.

With higher temperatures, and with drought looming, apple orchards and vineyards find themselves requiring more water (during the summer season), just when less and less is available. 

A scientific study of January 2026, titled Climate variability and perennial fruit crop yields: insights from Trentino-Alto Adige, Northern Italy, produced by the Universities of L'Aquila and Florence and published in the scientific journal Elsevier / Agricultural and Forest Meteorology, came to the following conclusions:

• the yields of the apples in Trentino-Alto Adige they are more sensitive to climate changes than grapes;
• the most critical factor is late spring frost;
• Excessive heat and temperature changes also have a significant impact on productivity;
• beyond certain climatic thresholds, production drops rapidly. 

The paradox is that Trentino-Alto Adige is a region historically rich in water thanks to the Alps, but climate warming is putting into crisis that agricultural model built on abundant snow and constant availability of water.

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