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Severe flooding over central and southern greece associated with pre‐cold frontal orographic lifting
Author(s) -
Kotroni V.,
Lagouvardos K.,
Kallos G.,
Ziakopoulos D.
Publication year - 1999
Publication title -
quarterly journal of the royal meteorological society
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 1.744
H-Index - 143
eISSN - 1477-870X
pISSN - 0035-9009
DOI - 10.1002/qj.49712555511
Subject(s) - orographic lift , climatology , advection , orography , geology , cold front , peninsula , precipitation , storm , meteorology , environmental science , geography , oceanography , physics , archaeology , thermodynamics
An extreme rainfall event, associated with a cold front, which occurred on 11‐12 January 1997 over Greece is investigated through observational analysis and numerical simulations. the analysed storm system produced large amounts of rainfall, with devastating impacts over central and southern Greece, where at some sites 24‐hour accumulated precipitation exceeded 300 mm. the model analysis was performed with the three‐dimensional non‐hydrostatic Colorado State University Regional Atmospheric Modeling System. the model results caught the larger‐scale features present in the observational analyses while developing more realistic finer‐scale features. Sensitivity tests are also performed in order to investigate the role of the topography of the Greek peninsula on the enhancement of convection. Indeed, the orientation of the flow was optimal for advection of moist air with a maximized fetch over the sea, and at an angle of impact optimum for orographic lifting ahead of the main topographic axes of continental Greece.