Marsala it is not unusual to experience the effect of Sirocco wind, which brings dust and sand from the Sahara. Winters are generally rainy and cooler with temperatures ranging between minimum of (in December 2014) and . Snowfall occurs very rarely, since the temperature has never dropped below freezing, although snow has fallen before, for example in December 2014. In 397 BC the Phoenician colony of Motya on the southwestern coast of Sicily was invaded and destroyed by the Syracusan tyrant Dionysius I. The survivors founded a town on the mainland nearby, the site of modern-day Marsala, which they called by
White wine the technique of ice wine can produce exceptional wines in a climate which is apparently unfavourable. Canada is the largest producer of ice wine in the world. The warmer southern areas also produce white wine, but in a lower proportion. In addition, it is more often sweet or fortified wines, natural sweet wines or "vinés" wines, as in the case of vineyards around the Mediterranean (muscat, madeira, marsala etc.). According to Claude and Lydia Bourguignon, red wines are well suited to soil based on limestone while the best white wines are produced on soils over metamorphic rocks (Alsace, Moselle, Anjou)