Journal article
Examining the precipitation associated with medicanes in the high‐resolution ERA‐5 reanalysis data
International journal of climatology, Vol.41(1), pp.E126-E132
01/2021
DOI: 10.1002/joc.6669
Abstract
Medicanes, hurricane‐like cyclonic systems in the Mediterranean Sea, are becoming an increasingly severe problem for many Mediterranean countries because climate projections suggest a higher risk under anthropogenic forcing even under an intermediate scenario. Due to the small size of these weather systems, high‐resolution data are required to better resolve their structure and evolution. Here we investigate medicanes from the perspective of precipitation using the high‐resolution (0.25°) ERA‐5 reanalysis data released by European Centre for Medium‐Range Weather Forecasts. Overall, we identify a total of 59 medicanes from ERA‐5 data during 1979–2017, with marked year‐to‐year variability. These storms tend to occur mostly between September and March. Overall, the intensity of medicanes (i.e., maximum wind) is lower than that of tropical cyclones, and this is also true for precipitation. The composite precipitation of medicanes increases from the centre to ~0.8° and then decreases. During 1979–2017, many regions along the Mediterranean Sea experienced over 20 extreme precipitation events (i.e., days) which were caused by medicanes, accounting for 2–5% of all the extreme precipitation events.
Using ERA5 and EOBS data, we show that medicanes can be associated with heavy rainfall within a 2° radius of the cyclone centre, highlighting the importance of high‐resolution data to identify and study these systems.
Details
- Title: Subtitle
- Examining the precipitation associated with medicanes in the high‐resolution ERA‐5 reanalysis data
- Creators
- Wei Zhang - University of IowaGabriele Villarini - University of IowaEnrico Scoccimarro - Fondazione Centro Euro-Mediterraneo sui Cambiamenti Climatici Bologna ItalyFrancesco Napolitano - Sapienza University of Rome
- Resource Type
- Journal article
- Publication Details
- International journal of climatology, Vol.41(1), pp.E126-E132
- Publisher
- John Wiley & Sons, Ltd
- DOI
- 10.1002/joc.6669
- ISSN
- 0899-8418
- eISSN
- 1097-0088
- Number of pages
- 7
- Grant note
- National Science Foundation (EAR‐1840742) H2020 EU project COACCH (776479)
- Language
- English
- Date published
- 01/2021
- Academic Unit
- IIHR--Hydroscience and Engineering; Civil and Environmental Engineering
- Record Identifier
- 9984197449102771
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