Sixth Palio postponed due to rain since 2022

The postponed Palio of August 2026 is the 6th Palio since 2022 that is not being run on the usual date. They were all postponed due to rain. We list them briefly:

• 17 August 2022 (Palio dell’Assunta): postponed due to the downpour that fell in the afternoon just before the Corteo Storico entered the Piazza (won by Leocorno).
• 4 July 2024 (Palio di Provenzano): postponed due to the rain that hit Siena on both July 2 and 3. The Palio was run on July 4 (won by Onda).
• 17 August 2024 (Palio dell’Assunta): postponed due to rain that fell during the Corteo Storico (won by Lupa).
• July 3, 2025 (Palio di Provenzano): postponed due to rain that fell during the afternoon (won by Oca).
• July 3, 2026 (Palio di Provenzano): postponed due to rain during the night that had rendered the track unusable (won by Aquila).
• August 16, 2026 (Palio dell’Assunta): postponed due to a thunderstorm in the early afternoon.

It becomes more striking when we compare it to the period before that. If we go back to 1991, we see that over a span of 25 years, 4 Palios were postponed, only 3 of which were due to the weather. On July 3, 1991, the Palio was won by Tartuca. This was postponed due to the onset of darkness. The other 3 (July 3, 1992 – Aquila), July 3, 1997 (Giraffa), and August 17, 2015 (Selva) were indeed postponed due to rain.

Without wishing to polarize, we can therefore speak of consequences of climate change that also affects the Palio.