Identification and ranking of extraordinary rainfall events over northwest Italy: the role of Atlantic moisture
An objective identification and ranking of extraordinary rainfall events for Northwest Italy is established using time series of annual precipitation maxima for 1938–2002 at over 200 stations. Rainfall annual maxima are considered for five reference durations (1, 3, 6, 12, and 24 h). In a first step...
Published in: | Journal of Geophysical Research: Atmospheres |
---|---|
Main Authors: | , , , , , |
Format: | Article in Journal/Newspaper |
Language: | English |
Published: |
American Geophysical Union
2013
|
Subjects: | |
Online Access: | https://centaur.reading.ac.uk/32738/ https://centaur.reading.ac.uk/32738/1/jgrd50179.pdf https://doi.org/10.1002/jgrd.50179 |
id |
ftunivreading:oai:centaur.reading.ac.uk:32738 |
---|---|
record_format |
openpolar |
spelling |
ftunivreading:oai:centaur.reading.ac.uk:32738 2024-09-15T18:21:40+00:00 Identification and ranking of extraordinary rainfall events over northwest Italy: the role of Atlantic moisture Pinto, Joaquim G. Ulbrich, Sven Parodi, Antonio Rudari, Roberto Boni, Giorgio Ulbrich, Uwe 2013 text https://centaur.reading.ac.uk/32738/ https://centaur.reading.ac.uk/32738/1/jgrd50179.pdf https://doi.org/10.1002/jgrd.50179 en eng American Geophysical Union https://centaur.reading.ac.uk/32738/1/jgrd50179.pdf Pinto, J. G. <https://centaur.reading.ac.uk/view/creators/90005193.html>, Ulbrich, S., Parodi, A., Rudari, R., Boni, G. and Ulbrich, U. (2013) Identification and ranking of extraordinary rainfall events over northwest Italy: the role of Atlantic moisture. Journal of Geophysical Research, 118 (5). pp. 2085-2097. ISSN 0148-0227 doi: https://doi.org/10.1002/jgrd.50179 <https://doi.org/10.1002/jgrd.50179> Article PeerReviewed 2013 ftunivreading https://doi.org/10.1002/jgrd.50179 2024-07-30T14:08:25Z An objective identification and ranking of extraordinary rainfall events for Northwest Italy is established using time series of annual precipitation maxima for 1938–2002 at over 200 stations. Rainfall annual maxima are considered for five reference durations (1, 3, 6, 12, and 24 h). In a first step, a day is classified as an extraordinary rainfall day when a regional threshold calculated on the basis of a two-components extreme value distribution is exceeded for at least one of the stations. Second, a clustering procedure taking into account the different rainfall durations is applied to the identified 163 events. Third, a division into six clusters is chosen using Ward's distance criteria. It is found that two of these clusters include the seven strongest events as quantified from a newly developed measure of intensity which combines rainfall intensities and spatial extension. Two other clusters include the weakest 72% historical events. The obtained clusters are analyzed in terms of typical synoptic characteristics. The two top clusters are characterized by strong and persistent upper air troughs inducing not only moisture advection from the North Atlantic into the Western Mediterranean but also strong northward flow towards the southern Alpine ranges. Humidity transports from the North Atlantic are less important for the weaker clusters. We conclude that moisture advection from the North Atlantic plays a relevant role in the magnitude of the extraordinary events over Northwest Italy. Article in Journal/Newspaper North Atlantic CentAUR: Central Archive at the University of Reading Journal of Geophysical Research: Atmospheres 118 5 2085 2097 |
institution |
Open Polar |
collection |
CentAUR: Central Archive at the University of Reading |
op_collection_id |
ftunivreading |
language |
English |
description |
An objective identification and ranking of extraordinary rainfall events for Northwest Italy is established using time series of annual precipitation maxima for 1938–2002 at over 200 stations. Rainfall annual maxima are considered for five reference durations (1, 3, 6, 12, and 24 h). In a first step, a day is classified as an extraordinary rainfall day when a regional threshold calculated on the basis of a two-components extreme value distribution is exceeded for at least one of the stations. Second, a clustering procedure taking into account the different rainfall durations is applied to the identified 163 events. Third, a division into six clusters is chosen using Ward's distance criteria. It is found that two of these clusters include the seven strongest events as quantified from a newly developed measure of intensity which combines rainfall intensities and spatial extension. Two other clusters include the weakest 72% historical events. The obtained clusters are analyzed in terms of typical synoptic characteristics. The two top clusters are characterized by strong and persistent upper air troughs inducing not only moisture advection from the North Atlantic into the Western Mediterranean but also strong northward flow towards the southern Alpine ranges. Humidity transports from the North Atlantic are less important for the weaker clusters. We conclude that moisture advection from the North Atlantic plays a relevant role in the magnitude of the extraordinary events over Northwest Italy. |
format |
Article in Journal/Newspaper |
author |
Pinto, Joaquim G. Ulbrich, Sven Parodi, Antonio Rudari, Roberto Boni, Giorgio Ulbrich, Uwe |
spellingShingle |
Pinto, Joaquim G. Ulbrich, Sven Parodi, Antonio Rudari, Roberto Boni, Giorgio Ulbrich, Uwe Identification and ranking of extraordinary rainfall events over northwest Italy: the role of Atlantic moisture |
author_facet |
Pinto, Joaquim G. Ulbrich, Sven Parodi, Antonio Rudari, Roberto Boni, Giorgio Ulbrich, Uwe |
author_sort |
Pinto, Joaquim G. |
title |
Identification and ranking of extraordinary rainfall events over northwest Italy: the role of Atlantic moisture |
title_short |
Identification and ranking of extraordinary rainfall events over northwest Italy: the role of Atlantic moisture |
title_full |
Identification and ranking of extraordinary rainfall events over northwest Italy: the role of Atlantic moisture |
title_fullStr |
Identification and ranking of extraordinary rainfall events over northwest Italy: the role of Atlantic moisture |
title_full_unstemmed |
Identification and ranking of extraordinary rainfall events over northwest Italy: the role of Atlantic moisture |
title_sort |
identification and ranking of extraordinary rainfall events over northwest italy: the role of atlantic moisture |
publisher |
American Geophysical Union |
publishDate |
2013 |
url |
https://centaur.reading.ac.uk/32738/ https://centaur.reading.ac.uk/32738/1/jgrd50179.pdf https://doi.org/10.1002/jgrd.50179 |
genre |
North Atlantic |
genre_facet |
North Atlantic |
op_relation |
https://centaur.reading.ac.uk/32738/1/jgrd50179.pdf Pinto, J. G. <https://centaur.reading.ac.uk/view/creators/90005193.html>, Ulbrich, S., Parodi, A., Rudari, R., Boni, G. and Ulbrich, U. (2013) Identification and ranking of extraordinary rainfall events over northwest Italy: the role of Atlantic moisture. Journal of Geophysical Research, 118 (5). pp. 2085-2097. ISSN 0148-0227 doi: https://doi.org/10.1002/jgrd.50179 <https://doi.org/10.1002/jgrd.50179> |
op_doi |
https://doi.org/10.1002/jgrd.50179 |
container_title |
Journal of Geophysical Research: Atmospheres |
container_volume |
118 |
container_issue |
5 |
container_start_page |
2085 |
op_container_end_page |
2097 |
_version_ |
1810460409976586240 |