Daily precipitation records over mainland Spain and the Balearic Islands

Abstract

Abstract. Understanding the spatial distribution of extreme precipitations is of major interest in order to improve our knowledge of the climate of a region and its relationship with society. These analyses inevitably require the use of directly observed values to account for the actual extreme amounts rather than analyzed gridded values. A study of daily rainfall extremes observed over mainland Spain and the Balearic Islands is performed by using records from 8135 rain gauge stations from the Spanish Weather Agency (AEMET). Results show that the heaviest daily precipitations have been observed mainly on the coastal Mediterranean zone from Gibraltar to the Pyrenees. In particular, a record value of 817 mm was recorded in the Valencia region in 1987. The current map of daily records in Spain, which updates the pioneering work of the Spanish meteorologist Font, shows similar distribution of extreme events but with notably higher amounts. Generalized extreme values distributions fit the Mediterranean and Atlantic rain gauge measurements and shows the different characteristics of the extreme daily precipitations in both regions. We identify the most extreme events (above 500 mm per day) and provide a brief description of a typical meteorological situation in which these damaging events occur. An analysis of the low-level circulation patterns producing such extremes -by means of simple indices such as NAO, WeMOi and IBEI -confirms the relevance of local flows in the generation of either Mediterranean or Atlantic episodes. WeMOi, and even more IBEI, are good discriminants of the region affected by the record precipitation event.

Intra‐annual rainfall variability in the Spanish hydrographic basins

“…In the Iberian Peninsula there are many studies showing the spatiotemporal variation of rainfall and the availability of water resources (García‐Barrón et al, ; Sánchez et al, ; Estrela et al, ; Guerreiro et al, ; Aguilar‐Alba, ). Other studies have analysed the rainfall variation at daily time scales (Martin‐Vide, ; Rodrigo and Trigo, ; Acero et al, ; Gallego et al, ; Ramis et al, ), or at monthly or seasonal time scales (García et al, ; Ninyerola et al, ; Martínez et al, ; Rodrigo, ; Del Rio et al, ; Costa et al, ; De Lima et al, ). Thus, De Luis et al .…”

Heavy rain and strong wind events over Spain during HyMeX SOP1

“…The other centre, located towards the southeast of the Balearic Islands, could not provide feeding flow to the Valencia area, but to the Balearic Islands. Figure 13 makes a comparison between the situation of 28th September 2012 (AROME analysis) and that of 4th November 1987 (manual analysis), the latter with record rainfall of over 800 mm in 24 hours (Ramis et al, 2013). The influence of the particular distribution of depression centres on the distribution of rain has to be determined, and this can be done by numerical experimentation.…”

“…The rest of each month was not very productive in terms of heavy rain, especially September. It is of interest that the region that traditionally accumulates stronger rainfall, which is south of Valencia and north of Alicante (Safor and Marina Alta) (Font, 1983;Ramis et al, 2013) showed a deficit this year, particularly in October. Therefore, the most iconic episodes of heavy rainfall were missing, but there was enough variety and abundance of episodes.…”

“…From the climatic point of view, in the north-western Mediterranean, fall, more specifically September and October, is the most likely time for intense rainfall and flash floods (Martínez et al, 2008;Llasat et al, 2010Llasat et al, , 2013Ramis et al, 2013). Hence the congruence between the selected area, type of preferential phenomenon and period for SOP1.…”

On the severe convective storm of 29 October 2013 in the Balearic Islands: observational and numerical study

“…Historical references to heavy precipitation events are numerous, some of these going back to the Middle Ages (e.g. 1991)., Barceló In this context, the province of Valencia (eastern Spain) possesses one of the highest daily accumulations ever recorded in Europe, 817 mm on 3 November 1987 (Ramis et al , 2013). Two of the greatest flash‐flood‐producing storms in Valencia region during the last decades, associated with circular‐shaped meso‐ β convective systems, were thoroughly analyzed by Romero et al (2000) and Fernández et al (1995) using mesoscale numerical modelling.…”