Cyclone from Genoa to bring rain and storms to North Macedonia from 21 October

Skopje, 20 October 2026 — A cyclone centered near Genoa will destabilise the atmosphere over the Balkans from Wednesday, bringing a shift from calm autumn weather to rain, thunderstorms and strong southerly winds, meteorologist Slavcho Poposki warned.

Timing and expected impacts

According to Poposki, the system will begin to affect the region on Wednesday, 21 October, and continue into the following days. "This cyclone from Genoa from Wednesday (21 October) and in the days after will intermittently bring heavy rain to many parts of the Balkans, accompanied by thunder and strengthened winds (locally with occurrences of severe weather, accompanied by very heavy rain, strong wind, thunder, possible hail and local flash floods)."

For North Macedonia the meteorologist said the cyclone's influence will be strongest on Thursday and Friday, 22 and 23 October, when cloudiness will increase and rain will fall — locally heavy and torrential — accompanied by thunder and gusty winds, locally developing into storms.

Despite the incoming unrest, Poposki noted that a southern air flow will keep temperatures relatively high for the season. He expects daytime maxima in many places to reach or exceed 15 °C, while the Skopje basin, the Povardarie plain and southeastern parts of the country may top 20 °C.

"All in all, a very changeable week lies ahead of us, which will start first with stable weather and sunshine, and then, as I announced above, we will have a cyclone from Genoa and a change of the weather situation in Macedonia, but also across the entire region. However, despite this we will remain under the influence of southern air flow which, as I announced above, will bring relatively high air temperatures, without any significant cooling of the weather for now," Poposki said.

Residents and authorities are advised to monitor forecasts through Wednesday and prepare for locally heavy rain, strong winds and the possibility of hail or flash floods in exposed locations on 22–23 October.

Photo: press material from the event