Doswell-III, C. A. (NSSL/NOAA. Norman. OK. USA)
Romero, R. (Departament de Fisica. Universitat de les Illes Balears. Palma de Mallorca. Spain)
Ramis, C. (same affiliation)
Alonso, S. (same affiliation)
Two meteorological situations that produced heavy rainfall in eastern Spain (Valencia region) and northern Italy (Piedmont region) are diagnosed. Daily amounts of up to 250 mm were collected in both cases.
The first one was characterized, at low levels, by a low located over the Algeria coast advecting warm and humid air towards the Spanish mediterranean coast and, at upper levels, by two low centres rotating about one another contributing to the stationarity of the system.
The second one was associated with a cold front moving from west to east and a deep trough at upper levels producing strong dynamic forcing.
Although heavy precipitations in the western Mediterranean are normaly produced by mesoscale convective systems (MCS), in the first case convection was very spotty and focalized by the coastal mountains of eastern Spain, and in the second case the major part of the precipitation over the Piedmont region was essentially non-convective, as a result of the important lifting induced by the Alps on the humid air.