The February 2012 exceptional snowfall along the Adriatic side of Central Italy

Bisci, Carlo; Fazzini, Massimiliano; Beltrando, Gérard; Cardillo, Antonio; Romeo, Vincenzo

doi:10.1127/0941-2948/2012/0536

Cited by 11 publications

(21 citation statements)

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“…1d and S1d). Interestingly, there is a clear peak in θ −1 T max ,P during summer 2003 for all reanalysis products, coinciding with the extreme 2003 European heatwave (Black et al, 2004;Fischer et al, 2007;Stott et al, 2004). Moreover, similar trends as for Fig.…”

Section: Temperature-precipitation Couplingsupporting

confidence: 63%

Compound warm–dry and cold–wet events over the Mediterranean

et al. 2020

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Abstract. The Mediterranean (MED) Basin is a climate change hotspot that has seen drying and a pronounced increase in heatwaves over the last century. At the same time, it is experiencing increased heavy precipitation during wintertime cold spells. Understanding and quantifying the risks from compound events over the MED is paramount for present and future disaster risk reduction measures. Here, we apply a novel method to study compound events based on dynamical systems theory and analyse compound temperature and precipitation events over the MED from 1979 to 2018. The dynamical systems analysis quantifies the strength of the coupling between different atmospheric variables over the MED. Further, we consider compound warm–dry anomalies in summer and cold–wet anomalies in winter. Our results show that these warm–dry and cold–wet compound days are associated with large values of the temperature–precipitation coupling parameter of the dynamical systems analysis. This indicates that there is a strong interaction between temperature and precipitation during compound events. In winter, we find no significant trend in the coupling between temperature and precipitation. However in summer, we find a significant upward trend which is likely driven by a stronger coupling during warm and dry days. Thermodynamic processes associated with long-term MED warming can best explain the trend, which intensifies compound warm–dry events.

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Section: Temperature-precipitation Couplingsupporting

confidence: 63%

Compound warm–dry and cold–wet events over the Mediterranean

et al. 2020

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“…anomalies over eastern Europe, suggesting that, in the recent period, moisture advection from the Mediterranean Sea to the Balkans has favored snow accumulations in the countries examined. These cyclonic patterns can originate from two different conditions: local cyclogenesis in the Adriatic Sea driven by cold-air intrusions from Siberia (Bisci et al, 2012) or cyclogenesis in the Tyrrhenian Sea (Genoa lows) driven by polar air flowing through the Rhone Valley (Spreitzhofer, 2000). The m.s.l.…”

Section: Thermodynamic Changesmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Inland, snow reached and exceeded 2 m in height in the Apennines. Two further recent examples of snowfalls affecting large populated areas are the February-March 2012 snowstorm in northern Italy, with up to 50 cm of snowfall measured in Bologna (Bisci et al, 2012), and the winter 2018 snowstorm Emma, which affected the UK with up to 40 cm of snowfall in Wales and the disruption of air and rail transportation in the London, Manchester and Liverpool areas (Tonks, 2018).…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

An attempt to explain recent changes in European snowfall extremes

Faranda

2020

Weather Clim. Dynam.

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Abstract. The goal of this work is to investigate and explain recent changes in total and maximum yearly snowfall from daily data in light of current global warming or the interdecadal variability of atmospheric circulation. We focus on the period 1979–2018 and compare two different datasets: the ERA5 reanalysis data and the E-OBSv20.0 data, where snowfall is identified from rainfall by applying a threshold to temperature. We compute changes as differences from quantities computed for the periods 1999–2018 and 1979–1998. On the one hand, we show that the decline in average snowfall observed in almost all European regions is coherent with previous findings and can be linked to global warming. On the other hand, we observe contrasting changes in maxima and sometimes disagreement in the sign of changes in the two datasets. Coherent positive trends are found for a few countries in the Balkans. These have been investigated in details by looking at modifications in the atmospheric weather patterns as well as local thermodynamic factors concurring to large snowfall events. We link these changes to the stronger prevalence of Atlantic Ridge or blocking patterns associated with deeper cyclonic structures over the Adriatic and Tyrrhenian seas. These cyclones find warmer surfaces and large availability of humidity and convective available potential energy (CAPE), thus producing large snowfall amounts, enhanced by the Stau effect on the Balkan topography.

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“…For southern Europe, which in wintertime is affected by mid‐latitude cyclones originating either over the Mediterranean or the Atlantic Ocean, the research is continuous and in the recent years a great amount of supplementary work has been done on the identification of the factors related to snowfall (e.g. Fazzini et al , ; Bisci et al , ; Llasat et al , ; Merino et al , ). For the southeastern Europe, where Greece is located, many researchers dealt with snowfall events and the atmospheric factors related to them.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…DAFIS et al factors related to snowfall (e.g. Fazzini et al, 2005;Bisci et al, 2012;Llasat et al, 2014;Merino et al, 2014). For the southeastern Europe, where Greece is located, many researchers dealt with snowfall events and the atmospheric factors related to them.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

The atmospheric circulation characteristics favouring snowfall in an area with complex relief in Northwestern Greece

Dafis

Lolis

Houssos

et al. 2015

Intl Journal of Climatology

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The connection between atmospheric circulation over Europe and snowfall in Ioannina, Northwestern (NW) Greece, is examined. The study deals with 160 snow events, referring to the 56‐year period 1956–2011. For each of the events, the patterns of 500 and 1000 hPa geopotential height, 500 and 850 hPa air temperature, 1000–500, 1000–700 and 700–500 hPa thickness are constructed for the European area, whereas static stability K‐index, relative humidity at 500, 700 and 850 hPa levels and finally relative vorticity at 500 and 1000 hPa are also used for the Southeastern (SE) Mediterranean region, for the previous day (D‐1), the starting day (D) and the day following the cessation of snowfall (END). Factor analysis and cluster analysis are applied to the above datasets and the evolutions of the above circulation parameters are classified into eight clusters. Snowfall in NW Greece is generally associated with a low pressure system over the Ionian Sea combined with an anticyclone over Western or NW Europe, causing cold northwesterly flow in the lower troposphere over NW Greece. In the middle troposphere, a deep 500 hPa trough usually extends from Western Russia to Italy and the Ionian Sea. The eight atmospheric circulation structures differ mainly in the exact location and/or the intensity of the depression and/or the anticyclone, in the orientation of the 500 hPa trough axis and in the trajectories of the above synoptic systems between D‐1 and END days.

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The February 2012 exceptional snowfall along the Adriatic side of Central Italy

Cited by 11 publications

References 0 publications

Compound warm–dry and cold–wet events over the Mediterranean

Compound warm–dry and cold–wet events over the Mediterranean

An attempt to explain recent changes in European snowfall extremes

The atmospheric circulation characteristics favouring snowfall in an area with complex relief in Northwestern Greece

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