High-impact floods and flash floods in Mediterranean countries: the FLASH preliminary database

Llasat, María Carmen; Llasat-Botija, Montserrat; Prat, Marc; Porcú, Federico; Price, Colin; Mugnai, A.; Lagouvardos, Konstantinos; Kotroni, Vassiliki; Katsanos, Dimitrios; Michaelides, Silas; Yair, Yoav; Savvidou, K.; Nicolaides, K.

doi:10.5194/adgeo-23-47-2010

Cited by 254 publications

(198 citation statements)

References 21 publications

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“…Following droughts, floods are the most dangerous meteorological hazards affecting the Mediterranean countries, as the casualties and damages exceed 4500 deaths and 29 million Euro, respectively, according to a total of 185 recorded flood events between 1990 and 2006 (Llasat et al, 2010). Flash floods often affect ungauged watersheds thus remaining a poorly documented phenomenon (Gaume et al, 2009).…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Lightning activity, rainfall and flash flooding – occasional or interrelated events? A case study in the island of Crete

Koutroulis

Grillakis

Tsanis

et al. 2012

Nat. Hazards Earth Syst. Sci.

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Abstract. The majority of cyclones passing over Crete in late autumn to early winter originate from southwest, west and northwest and are of varying size and intensity. A number of these cyclones cause flash floods. The present study reports the possible relationships between lighting activity and high precipitation related to flash flood events. In this study an attempt was made to correlate the lightning number and location, recorded by the ZEUS lightning detection system, with the rainfall characteristics for sixteen rain events (4 flood and 12 non-flood events) on the island of Crete, during the period [2008][2009]. Spatiotemporal analysis of rain and rain rate with flash count was performed with respect to distance (radius) of flashes from raingauge location at various temporal scales, in order to examine the correlation of accumulated rainfall and lightning activity. The maximum attained statistical significant correlation was obtained within a circular area of an average radius of 15 km around the raingauge, and an average time lag of flash count prior precipitation accumulation of 15 min. The maximum correlation between the lightning and rainfall data is obtained for shorter time lags for the flood events (15 min) than the non-flood events (25 min), that could reflect the faster propagation of flood triggering storms due to high convective activity. Results show increased lightning activity occurring during flood triggering storms, by an average of four times higher. Furthermore, there is evidence that the number of flashes that occur during a precipitation event is related to precipitation depth when the latter is adequate to produce a flood event. Differences between flood and non-flood producing storms need to be further assessed by analyzing more independent parameters, including the synoptic conditions and dominant flash flood hydrological generating processes.

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Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Lightning activity, rainfall and flash flooding – occasional or interrelated events? A case study in the island of Crete

Koutroulis

Grillakis

Tsanis

et al. 2012

Nat. Hazards Earth Syst. Sci.

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“…events and with a high permanent population density that increases in the summer (Llasat et al, 2010). The Ter basin is 5 important both in terms of water resources and for agriculture and tourism, including both rural and urban areas, as well as hydraulic systems for flood prevention (dams and retention dams).…”

Section: Methodsmentioning

confidence: 99%

The relationship between precipitation and insurance data for flood damages in a region of the Mediterranean (Northeast Spain)

Cortès

Turco

Llasat-Botija

et al. 2017

Preprint

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“…That is the case, for instance, for the Alpine region where during autumn and winter the Mediterranean Sea is one of the main precipitation sources for extreme precipitation [10]. In general, the higher frequency of extreme precipitations and their impacts are recorded in the north-western part of the basin [22].…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…They have pointed out that extreme precipitation events in the Mediterranean region, their frequency, intensity and impact do not show a homogenous tendency on the entire area [22].…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

<span>The Mediterranean moisture supply in the genesis of climatological and extreme monthly continental precipitation</span>

Ciric

Nieto

Losada

et al. 2017

Proceedings of First International Electronic Conference on the Hydrological Cycle

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Abstract:The moisture transport from its sources to the continents is one of the most relevant topics in the hydrology, and its role in extremes events is crucial to understand several processes in the Earth, as intense precipitations and/or flooding. Using the global precipitation dataset from the Multi-Source Weighted-Ensemble Precipitation (MSWEP) from 1980 to 2015, a monthly precipitation climatology was done over the area of the Mediterranean Sea, checking grid by grid which year exhibits the maximum precipitation. As is well known, the Mediterranean Basin is a clear source of moisture for the surrounding areas. To link this source of moisture with the precipitation over it surroundings, in this work we have made use of the Lagrangian dispersion model FLEXPART to track, in its forward mode, those particles that monthly leave the Mediterranean Basin and we have calculated the loss of moisture (E-P<0) modeled by FLEXPART over the continental region. The aim of this study is to calculate the monthly climatological percentage of the Mediterranean contribution grid by grid, and the changes of this contribution for extreme monthly precipitation, checking the importance of this sea source of moisture during the maxima peaks of precipitation. In general terms, the spatial pattern of the contribution of the Mediterranean source to the precipitation does not differ a lot between those years with higher precipitation and the climatology; however there any European regions where the Mediterranean is not an important source for climatological precipitation but it is a significant source for extreme precipitation years.

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High-impact floods and flash floods in Mediterranean countries: the FLASH preliminary database

Cited by 254 publications

References 21 publications

Lightning activity, rainfall and flash flooding – occasional or interrelated events? A case study in the island of Crete

Lightning activity, rainfall and flash flooding – occasional or interrelated events? A case study in the island of Crete

The relationship between precipitation and insurance data for flood damages in a region of the Mediterranean (Northeast Spain)

<span>The Mediterranean moisture supply in the genesis of climatological and extreme monthly continental precipitation</span>

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