Episode with strong downslope wind in the Southern and Curvature Carpathians in the period 5-6 February 2020

Abstract

The phenomenon that occurred during the blizzard from February 5-6 in the mountains and especially on the southern slopes of the Southern Carpathians, is known in the literature as "strong downslope winds". This phenomenon occurred in a typical blizzard configuration, in which the differentiated advection of temperature led to the formation of a very stable air layer, with thermal inversion approximately between the levels of 850 and 700 hPa; and it also contributed in this layer to the change of wind direction to vertical. Thus, the existence in the same air layer of two factors favorable to the formation of a critical level, created the ideal conditions for generating strong downslope winds.