Abstract
Abstract. This paper investigates the precipitation types and background physical mechanisms of extreme precipitation events (EPEs) over western Turkey during the period 2006–2015. The EPEs are described as the precipitation values above the 90th percentile obtained from the hourly precipitation dataset, which has high spatial resolution. Precipitation types associated with EPEs are identified by using radar outputs and the Lamb weather type (LWT) approach. It is found that EPEs occurred more frequently in the Marmara and Aegean regions during autumn and winter months. In Marmara, mainly 21 %, 17 %, and 15 % of total autumn EPEs show convective, cyclonic, and sea-effect precipitation characteristics, respectively. While convective EPEs are seen more commonly in the southern portions, cyclonic and sea-effect-originated EPEs mainly affect the southwest and northeastern parts of Marmara. Among these three precipitation types, convective mechanisms generally produce more intense daily precipitation (66.1 mm on average) in the Marmara Region under the proper synoptic conditions (high-pressure center over the Balkan Peninsula and low-pressure center over the eastern Mediterranean). Based on the hourly observations, convective types of extreme precipitation (EP) show two peak values during afternoon and evening times of the day and are linked to diurnal heating. In terms of the Aegean Region, cyclone-originated EP, which includes 65 % of the total winter EPEs, is more common in the whole territory and reaches its peak value during the early hours of the day.
Highlights
The occurrence of extreme precipitation events (EPEs) and background physical mechanisms triggering these episodes became a fundamental issue in the last decade due to its great impacts on agriculture, health, energy, and tourism
We identified the types of the EP, which are taken from 10year (2006–2015) high-resolution precipitation datasets, by using the Lamb weather type (LWT) approach (Fig. 1a) and radar outputs in western Turkey
This suggests that if the daily precipitation amount of a station located in the South Aegean exceeds this limit, that day is recorded as an EPE for that station
Summary
The occurrence of extreme precipitation events (EPEs) and background physical mechanisms triggering these episodes became a fundamental issue in the last decade due to its great impacts on agriculture, health, energy, and tourism. From this perspective, many researchers first identified the EPEs by applying fixed (e.g., Brooks and Stensrud, 2000; Ralph and Dettinger, 2012; Hitchens et al, 2012, 2013) or percentile-based precipitation thresholds (e.g., Piccarreta et al, 2013; Krichak et al, 2014) to the daily precipitation. A few researchers analyzed the climatological and general synoptic behaviors of the EPEs for this large territory (Ricard et al, 2012; Reale and Lionello, 2013)
Sign-in/Register to view highlights & summary Sign-in/Register to access full text options 
Free) 
Talk to us
Join us for a 30 min session where you can share your feedback and ask us any queries you have
Schedule a call
