Abstract
Abstract. The Special Observation Period (SOP1), part of the HyMeX campaign (Hydrological cycle in the Mediterranean Experiments, 5 September–6 November 2012), was dedicated to heavy precipitation events and flash floods in the western Mediterranean, and three Italian hydro-meteorological monitoring sites were identified: Liguria–Tuscany, northeastern Italy and central Italy. The extraordinary deployment of advanced instrumentation, including instrumented aircrafts, and the use of several different operational weather forecast models, including hydrological models and marine models, allowed an unprecedented monitoring and analysis of high-impact weather events around the Italian hydro-meteorological sites. This activity has seen strong collaboration between the Italian scientific and operational communities. In this paper an overview of the Italian organization during SOP1 is provided, and selected Intensive Observation Periods (IOPs) are described. A significant event for each Italian target area is chosen for this analysis: IOP2 (12–13 September 2012) in northeastern Italy, IOP13 (15–16 October 2012) in central Italy and IOP19 (3–5 November 2012) in Liguria and Tuscany. For each IOP the meteorological characteristics, together with special observations and weather forecasts, are analyzed with the aim of highlighting strengths and weaknesses of the forecast modeling systems, including the hydrological impacts. The usefulness of having different weather forecast operational chains characterized by different numerical weather prediction models and/or different model set up or initial conditions is finally shown for one of the events (IOP19).
Highlights
The HYdrological cycle in the Mediterranean Experiment (HyMeX, http://www.hymex.org; Drobinski et al, 2013) is an international experimental program that aims to advance scientific knowledge of water cycle variability in the Mediterranean basin
Several events were characterized by convection over the sea followed by orographic precipitation: during IOP2 (12– 13 September 2012) convection developed over the northern Adriatic, warm and moist advection from the south produced precipitation inland; during IOP13 (14–16 October 2012) convection associated with a convergence line entered central Italy (CI) from the Tyrrhenian Sea; during IOP19 (3–5 November 2012) southerly advection of warm and humid air produced both convection over the Ligurian Sea and orographic precipitation along the Maritime Alps
During the campaign three hydro-meteorological sites were identified in Italy: Liguria– Tuscany (LT), northeastern Italy (NEI) and central Italy (CI)
Summary
The HYdrological cycle in the Mediterranean Experiment (HyMeX, http://www.hymex.org; Drobinski et al, 2013) is an international experimental program that aims to advance scientific knowledge of water cycle variability in the Mediterranean basin. Its multidisciplinary research activity investigates phenomena on different temporal and spatial scales, from the inter-annual/decadal variability of the Mediterranean coupled system (atmosphere–land–ocean) to the single event of severe weather In this context special emphasis is given to the topics of Special Observation Period (SOP1), that is the occurrence of heavy precipitation and floods, and the associated impacts on society. In order to prevent or reduce societal losses, progress in the monitoring of and predictive capability for these severe events are needed This requirement represented the strong motivation that resulted in the large and active participation of the Italian community in the first HyMeX SOP. Extraordinary monitoring activities, an outstanding number of implemented weather forecasting modeling chains, and one meteo–hydro and two meteo–hydro–marine chains are described, highlighting the large Italian community effort for the field campaign in terms of coordination and logistics.
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