Kallos, G. (University of Athens, Department of Applied Physics, Meteorology Lab., Athens, Greece)
Kotroni, V. (same affiliation)
Lagouvardos, K. (same affiliation)
Nickovic, S. (same affiliation)
Jovic, D. (same affiliation)
Kakaliagou, O. (same affiliation)
Papadopoulos, A. (same affiliation)
The NE part of the Mediterranean is characterised by the persistent northerly flow during all seasons. This is mainly due to the differential heating between the land of N Africa and S Europe and the temperature of the Mediterranean waters. With such flow pattern the area is covered by air masses of continental type for several days during the year. The amount of rain received annually is considered as low. This does not imply that the heavy rain events are absent from this area. Heavy rain events have been observed in this region during all seasons. The reasons for having such torrential phenomena are varying according to the season. During autumn, torrential rains usually occur over the Italian and Greek Peninsulas. The main reason is the strong contrast between the sea surface temperature and the overlying air masses which has as an effect the strong evaporation. During winter, such a strong contrast sometimes leads to heavy snow storms in the SE part of Greece. During the warm period of the year, hazardous weather phenomena are associated with the co-existence of the convergence zones over the Peninsulas with the passage of the edge of a front or trough over it.
In this presentation, some model results concerning a variety of torrential phenomena in the NE part of the Mediterranean are shown. More specifically, the prognostic models RAMS and ETA/NMC have been used in order to analyse severe weather phenomena of various types and seasons.