The climate of the Apuan Alps
The two Apuan mountainsides have a certain climatic diversity; the chain constitutes a barrier, both against the cold and dry northern winds and also against the more humid winds that come from the sea.
The Apuan south-western mountainside is characterised by a mild climate, with cool summers and not too harsh winters, while the one exposed to the north-east is more “continental”, with cool winters and short summers where precipitation, also snowy one, in certain places accumulates and persists all year.
But the articulation of the mountain determines a great variety of microclimates: sunny mountainsides exposed to wind are alternated to humid gorges and cold valley floors, sunny areas protected by wind are alternated to dense and shaded forests.
Umbrothermic diagram.
It is a chart with the average monthly temperature and precipitation; a drought period is recorded when the line that indicate the temperature trend intersects with the one of the precipitation, that in the Apuan area record a summer low; in the first diagram, that refers to the city of Massa (fig. 39A), the closed area identified by the lines signal a summer drought of about 20 days; in the altitude areas (fig. 39B) there is not drought.