Abstract
Abstract. This paper presents RISKMED, a project targeted to create an Early Warning System (EWS) in case of severe or extreme weather events in the central and eastern Mediterranean and specifically in southern Italy, northwestern Greece, Malta and Cyprus. As severe or extreme weather events are considered, cases when the values of some meteorological parameters (temperature, wind, precipitation) exceed certain thresholds, and/or a severe weather phenomenon (thunderstorm, snowfall) occurs. For an accurate weather forecast, selected meteorological models have been operated daily, based on a nesting strategy using two or three domains, providing detailed forecasts over the above mentioned areas. The forecast results are further exploited for the evaluation and prediction of human discomfort and fire weather indices. Finally, sea wave models have also been operating daily over the central and eastern Mediterranean Sea. In case a severe or extreme weather event is forecasted within the next 48 or 72 h for selected target areas (sub-regions defined by their morphological and population characteristics), the local authorities and the public are informed via a user-friendly graphic system, the so-called RISK MAP. On the web page of the Project ( http://www.riskmed.net ), additional information is provided about the real-time values of some meteorological parameters, the latest satellite picture and the time and space distribution of lightning during the last 24 h. The RISKMED project was financed by the EU and th Ministries of National Economy of Greece, Italy, Malta and Cyprus, in the frame of INTERREG IIIB/ARCHIMED programme.
Highlights
Extreme and severe weather events have an adverse impact to humans as well as to a variety of their social and economic activities
Since most climate change scenarios, apart from temperature increase, foresee a further increase in the frequency and intensity of severe weather events, researchers are focusing on developing methodologies for disaster risk reduction
The results of such research activities, which in most cases are adopted by the National Meteorological Services, may prove valuable in the effort to minimize natural hazards and loss of lives in the future
Summary
Extreme and severe weather events have an adverse impact to humans as well as to a variety of their social and economic activities. Since most climate change scenarios, apart from temperature increase, foresee a further increase in the frequency and intensity of severe weather events, researchers are focusing on developing methodologies for disaster risk reduction The results, namely, forecasts, warnings as well as other significant information, are made available to everyone via the official web site of the project: http://www.riskmed.net. At this point, it is worth mentioning other projects that built real-time nowcasting and forecasting systems. The present paper is intended to give a general introduction to RISKMED, while more detailed information is given in the other publications of the same special issue of this journal (Bertotti et al, 2009; Bertotti and Cavaleri, 2009; Davolio et al, 2009; Savvidou et al, 2009; Bartzokas et al, 2010; Casella et al, 2010; Dietrich et al, 2010; Drago et al, 2010; Mugnai et al, 2010)
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