Abstract. A survey of four years of local newspapers over the island of Sardinia was conducted. Articles were compared against meteorological observations in order to understand how efficiently intense precipitation events are perceived.

The comparison showed that, on a wide and heterogeneous area, public opinion perceives correctly 44% of events and its perception is unbiased. If, however, the focus is placed upon urban areas, the ability to perceive grows to 66%, but an "overperception" of 33% arises. If focus is finally placed upon rural areas, skills worsen, several events are missed and a significant negative bias is detected.