Emmanouil Flaounas will present some of his INTEXseas work at the HyMeX workshop in Split (23/5/2019). The abstract of Emmanouil’s poster presentation is included below.

In this study, we analyse the atmospheric conditions that led to the anomalously wet winter of 2009/2010 in the Mediterranean, the most rainy one in the last 38 years. During this peculiar winter, the large scale atmospheric circulation is related with the unusually zonal North Atlantic jet and an extremely persistent phase of the North Atlantic Oscillation. These conditions are shown to lead to anomalously high tropical moisture exports towards the Mediterranean, favouring thus higher rainfall events than typically expected. The relationship between cyclones and rainfall is highlighted in particular.

When characterising regional or global climate, due to its implications into for both local impacts and the environmental water cycle, precipitation is one of the most important atmospheric variables to be considered. For this reason, annual and seasonal trends of hourly to daily rainfall extremes have broadly been an important object of climatological studies in the past. In the context of the project INTEXseas (An integrated weather-system perspective on the characteristics, dynamics and impacts of extreme seasons), funded by the European research council (ERC), extreme rainy seasons are introduced as a new concept in climate research. An outline of the methodological framework is also demonstrated in detail, showing the spatial extent of areas that experience the same extreme season.