Extreme snowfalls and atmospheric circulation patterns in the Cantabrian Mountains (NW Spain)

© 2024 The Authors. Published by Elsevier B.V. This is an open access article under the CC BY-NC license (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/bync/4.0/). This research examines the atmospheric patterns associated with damages caused by extreme snowfalls during a 115-year period, using newspapers as...

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Published in:Cold Regions Science and Technology
Main Authors: García-Hernández, Cristina, López-Moreno, Juan I.
Other Authors: Ministerio de Asuntos Económicos y Transformación Digital (España), Ministerio de Educación, Cultura y Deporte (España), Ministerio de Ciencia e Innovación (España), Agencia Estatal de Investigación (España)
Format: Article in Journal/Newspaper
Language:English
Published: Elsevier BV 2023
Subjects:
Online Access:http://hdl.handle.net/10261/354414
https://doi.org/10.1016/j.coldregions.2024.104170
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spelling ftcsic:oai:digital.csic.es:10261/354414 2024-05-19T07:45:29+00:00 Extreme snowfalls and atmospheric circulation patterns in the Cantabrian Mountains (NW Spain) García-Hernández, Cristina López-Moreno, Juan I. Ministerio de Asuntos Económicos y Transformación Digital (España) Ministerio de Educación, Cultura y Deporte (España) Ministerio de Ciencia e Innovación (España) Agencia Estatal de Investigación (España) 2023-05 application/pdf http://hdl.handle.net/10261/354414 https://doi.org/10.1016/j.coldregions.2024.104170 en eng Elsevier BV #PLACEHOLDER_PARENT_METADATA_VALUE# info:eu-repo/grantAgreement/AEI/Plan Estatal de Investigación Científica y Técnica y de Innovación 2017-2020/PID2020-115269GB-I00/ES/DEGLACIACION Y RESPUESTA PARAGLACIAR DESDE EL ULTIMO MAXIMO GLACIAR EN LAS ISLAS SHETLAND DEL SUR (ANTARTIDA)/ info:eu-repo/grantAgreement/MECD//FPU14%2F01279/ES/FPU14%2F01279/ info:eu-repo/grantAgreement/AEI/Plan Estatal de Investigación Científica y Técnica y de Innovación 2021-2023/PID2021-124220OB-I00/ES/PRESENTE Y FUTURO DE LOS MANTOS DE NIEVE MARGINALES Y SU INFLUENCIA HIDROLOGICA Y AMBIENTAL/ Publisher's version The underlying dataset has been published as supplementary material of the article in the publisher platform at https://doi.org/10.1016/j.coldregions.2024.104170 https://doi.org/10.1016/j.coldregions.2024.104170 Sí Cold Regions, Science and Technology 221: 104170 (2024) 0165-232X http://hdl.handle.net/10261/354414 doi:10.1016/j.coldregions.2024.104170 1872-7441 open Climate extremes Heavy snowfalls Weather types North Atlantic Oscillation Snow load artículo 2023 ftcsic https://doi.org/10.1016/j.coldregions.2024.104170 2024-04-23T23:34:38Z © 2024 The Authors. Published by Elsevier B.V. This is an open access article under the CC BY-NC license (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/bync/4.0/). This research examines the atmospheric patterns associated with damages caused by extreme snowfalls during a 115-year period, using newspapers as the source to document the events and performing then a synthetic damage index. Between 1900 and 2015 there was 180 days with personal and material damages due to snowfalls (without considering associated hazards as snow avalanches or landslides): Apart from the numerous material damages recorded, 60 people were killed and 254 injured. Advections from the north represented a 30% of damaging days (followed by cyclonic and northeastern) accumulating the greatest number of days in the highest deciles of damage, although cyclonic days were the most damaging ones on average. The analysis of data from five weather stations in the area, allowed to relate weather types with temperature and precipitation extremes, showing that northern and cyclonic types led to the lowest temperature and the highest precipitation. Both the number of events and the damage index decreased throughout the study period, with the most serious events (those that caused deaths and injuries) highly concentrated in the first half of the 20th century. This decrease trend is parallel to that observed in the frequency of two of the most damaging advections, northern and northeastern (responsible for a 46.7% of damage), which have gone from representing 7.3% of days before 1930 to 5.8% after 1990. Futhermore, the relationship between the NAO phases and the days of damage has been examined, noting that damages are less frequent and les intense during the NAO's positive phase. Finally, non-atmospheric drivers such as land-use intensity decline in rural areas and Spanish regulations on roof snow loads standards (initiated in the 1960s and refined subsequently, thus mitigating roof collapses and associated casualties), could have partially contributed to the ... Article in Journal/Newspaper North Atlantic North Atlantic oscillation Digital.CSIC (Spanish National Research Council) Cold Regions Science and Technology 221 104170
institution Open Polar
collection Digital.CSIC (Spanish National Research Council)
op_collection_id ftcsic
language English
topic Climate extremes
Heavy snowfalls
Weather types
North Atlantic Oscillation
Snow load
spellingShingle Climate extremes
Heavy snowfalls
Weather types
North Atlantic Oscillation
Snow load
García-Hernández, Cristina
López-Moreno, Juan I.
Extreme snowfalls and atmospheric circulation patterns in the Cantabrian Mountains (NW Spain)
topic_facet Climate extremes
Heavy snowfalls
Weather types
North Atlantic Oscillation
Snow load
description © 2024 The Authors. Published by Elsevier B.V. This is an open access article under the CC BY-NC license (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/bync/4.0/). This research examines the atmospheric patterns associated with damages caused by extreme snowfalls during a 115-year period, using newspapers as the source to document the events and performing then a synthetic damage index. Between 1900 and 2015 there was 180 days with personal and material damages due to snowfalls (without considering associated hazards as snow avalanches or landslides): Apart from the numerous material damages recorded, 60 people were killed and 254 injured. Advections from the north represented a 30% of damaging days (followed by cyclonic and northeastern) accumulating the greatest number of days in the highest deciles of damage, although cyclonic days were the most damaging ones on average. The analysis of data from five weather stations in the area, allowed to relate weather types with temperature and precipitation extremes, showing that northern and cyclonic types led to the lowest temperature and the highest precipitation. Both the number of events and the damage index decreased throughout the study period, with the most serious events (those that caused deaths and injuries) highly concentrated in the first half of the 20th century. This decrease trend is parallel to that observed in the frequency of two of the most damaging advections, northern and northeastern (responsible for a 46.7% of damage), which have gone from representing 7.3% of days before 1930 to 5.8% after 1990. Futhermore, the relationship between the NAO phases and the days of damage has been examined, noting that damages are less frequent and les intense during the NAO's positive phase. Finally, non-atmospheric drivers such as land-use intensity decline in rural areas and Spanish regulations on roof snow loads standards (initiated in the 1960s and refined subsequently, thus mitigating roof collapses and associated casualties), could have partially contributed to the ...
author2 Ministerio de Asuntos Económicos y Transformación Digital (España)
Ministerio de Educación, Cultura y Deporte (España)
Ministerio de Ciencia e Innovación (España)
Agencia Estatal de Investigación (España)
format Article in Journal/Newspaper
author García-Hernández, Cristina
López-Moreno, Juan I.
author_facet García-Hernández, Cristina
López-Moreno, Juan I.
author_sort García-Hernández, Cristina
title Extreme snowfalls and atmospheric circulation patterns in the Cantabrian Mountains (NW Spain)
title_short Extreme snowfalls and atmospheric circulation patterns in the Cantabrian Mountains (NW Spain)
title_full Extreme snowfalls and atmospheric circulation patterns in the Cantabrian Mountains (NW Spain)
title_fullStr Extreme snowfalls and atmospheric circulation patterns in the Cantabrian Mountains (NW Spain)
title_full_unstemmed Extreme snowfalls and atmospheric circulation patterns in the Cantabrian Mountains (NW Spain)
title_sort extreme snowfalls and atmospheric circulation patterns in the cantabrian mountains (nw spain)
publisher Elsevier BV
publishDate 2023
url http://hdl.handle.net/10261/354414
https://doi.org/10.1016/j.coldregions.2024.104170
genre North Atlantic
North Atlantic oscillation
genre_facet North Atlantic
North Atlantic oscillation
op_relation #PLACEHOLDER_PARENT_METADATA_VALUE#
info:eu-repo/grantAgreement/AEI/Plan Estatal de Investigación Científica y Técnica y de Innovación 2017-2020/PID2020-115269GB-I00/ES/DEGLACIACION Y RESPUESTA PARAGLACIAR DESDE EL ULTIMO MAXIMO GLACIAR EN LAS ISLAS SHETLAND DEL SUR (ANTARTIDA)/
info:eu-repo/grantAgreement/MECD//FPU14%2F01279/ES/FPU14%2F01279/
info:eu-repo/grantAgreement/AEI/Plan Estatal de Investigación Científica y Técnica y de Innovación 2021-2023/PID2021-124220OB-I00/ES/PRESENTE Y FUTURO DE LOS MANTOS DE NIEVE MARGINALES Y SU INFLUENCIA HIDROLOGICA Y AMBIENTAL/
Publisher's version
The underlying dataset has been published as supplementary material of the article in the publisher platform at https://doi.org/10.1016/j.coldregions.2024.104170
https://doi.org/10.1016/j.coldregions.2024.104170

Cold Regions, Science and Technology 221: 104170 (2024)
0165-232X
http://hdl.handle.net/10261/354414
doi:10.1016/j.coldregions.2024.104170
1872-7441
op_rights open
op_doi https://doi.org/10.1016/j.coldregions.2024.104170
container_title Cold Regions Science and Technology
container_volume 221
container_start_page 104170
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