Spatio-Temporal Analysis of Intense Convective Storms Tracks in a Densely Urbanized Italian Basin

Matteo Sangiorgio,Stefano Barindelli

doi:10.3390/ijgi9030183

Matteo Sangiorgio, Stefano Barindelli

Open Access

https://doi.org/10.3390/ijgi9030183

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Abstract

Intense convective storms usually produce large rainfall volumes in short time periods, increasing the risk of floods and causing damages to population, buildings, and infrastructures. In this paper, we propose a framework to couple visual and statistical analyses of convective thunderstorms at the basin scale, considering both the spatial and temporal dimensions of the process. The dataset analyzed in this paper contains intense convective events that occurred in seven years (2012–2018) in the Seveso-Olona-Lambro basin (North of Italy). The data has been acquired by MeteoSwiss using the Thunderstorm Radar Tracking (TRT) algorithm. The results show that the most favorable conditions for the formation of convective events occur in the early afternoon and during summertime, confirming the key role of the temperature in atmospheric convection. The orography emerged as a driver for convection, which takes place more frequently in mountain areas. The storm paths analysis shows that the predominant direction is from South-West to North-East. Considering storm duration, long-lasting events reach higher values of radar reflectivity and cover more extended areas than short-lasting ones. The results obtained can be exploited for many practical applications including nowcasting, alert systems, and sensors deployment.

Highlights

Convective storms are a typical source of rainfall in many regions, especially during summer periods
Several research studies tried to improve the understanding of convective storm mechanisms by collecting and analyzing observations of the past few decades
In the period 1994–2013, 6,863 natural disasters occurred worldwide, and more than 70% have been strictly related to severe rainfall events: 2,937 floods, and 1,942 storms

Summary

Introduction

Convective storms are a typical source of rainfall in many regions, especially during summer periods. Radar-based climatology has been developed to clarify convective storm behaviors, distributions, and frequencies in different domains and environments [2,3,4,5,6]. The convective storms usually interest limited areas, and their duration is almost always less than two hours [25].

Results

Conclusion