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Spatiotemporal Variability of Precipitation Concentration and Drought Events in the...
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Spatiotemporal Variability of Precipitation Concentration and Drought Events in the Mediterranean Basin

A special issue of Atmosphere (ISSN 2073-4433). This special issue belongs to the section "Meteorology".

Deadline for manuscript submissions: closed (30 June 2021) | Viewed by 18470

Special Issue Editors

Dr. Joan A. López-Bustins

E-Mail Website
Guest Editor
Climatology Group, Department of Geography, University of Barcelona, 08029 Barcelona, Spain
Interests: precipitation variability; teleconnection indices; Mediterranean climate; drought patterns; torrential rainfall
Mr. Marc Lemus-Canovas

E-Mail Website
Assistant Guest Editor
Climatology Group, Department of Geography, University of Barcelona, 08029 Barcelona, Spain
Interests: climate regionalization; mountain climate; atmospheric circulation patterns; compound events; statistical downscaling

Special Issue Information

Dear Colleagues,

The Mediterranean basin is one of the most prominent hot spots of climate change and extreme climatic phenomena, such as heavy precipitation and drought events, which are frequent in this region. Furthermore, these phenomena are expected to increase under the future climate scenarios. Hence, it is important to study their spatial and temporal behavior within the Mediterranean basin. Both precipitation and drought phenomena show differences in patterns between the north and south shores of the Mediterranean, and between the Western and Eastern Mediterranean, which is worthy of study.

The overall goal of this Special Issue is to present observational and modeling studies on historical and future periods of precipitation and drought variability at all spatiotemporal scales. Studies containing data from the south shore of the Mediterranean are encouraged.

The topics of the Special Issue can include, but are not limited to, the following:

  • Spatiotemporal analysis of precipitation and drought indices
  • Influence of several teleconnection patterns
  • Observed changes in compound events related to droughts
  • Climate projections on extreme indices
  • Regional atmospheric circulation patterns
  • Climate trends on extreme indices

Dr. Joan A. López-Bustins
Mr. Marc Lemus-Canovas
Guest Editors

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Keywords

  • Mediterranean basin
  • precipitation concentration
  • severe droughts
  • climate regionalization
  • regional atmospheric circulation
  • teleconnection patterns
  • climate projections
  • extreme indices
  • compound events

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Published Papers (4 papers)

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Research

14 pages, 9161 KiB  
Article
Synoptic Causes of Torrential Rainfall in the Balearic Islands (1941–2010)
by Miquel Grimalt-Gelabert, Gabriel Alomar-Garau and Javier Martin-Vide
Atmosphere 2021, 12(8), 1035; https://doi.org/10.3390/atmos12081035 - 13 Aug 2021
Cited by 9 | Viewed by 2513
Abstract
This article determines the atmospheric situation for the 53 days where any weather station in the Balearic Islands detected torrential rain (equal to or above 200 mm in a single day) during the period 1941–2010. To do this, the synoptic charts for each [...] Read more.
This article determines the atmospheric situation for the 53 days where any weather station in the Balearic Islands detected torrential rain (equal to or above 200 mm in a single day) during the period 1941–2010. To do this, the synoptic charts for each day were analysed, classifying them in accordance with the types established by Martín Vide (1984) and, in addition, through the automatic synoptic classifications from Jenkinson and Collison (1977). The analysis results demonstrate the importance of cyclonic situations over the Western Mediterranean Basin linked to favourable altitude configurations (earlier presence of cut-off lows—DANA—or troughs). These atmospheric conditions contrast with those that predominate in nearby Mediterranean areas, such as the south-eastern coast of the Iberian Peninsula. Days with torrential rain on the Iberian coastline tend to coincide with easterly advections—a less common occurrence in the Balearics. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Spatiotemporal Variability of Precipitation Concentration and Drought Events in the Mediterranean Basin)
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42 pages, 5837 KiB  
Article
Mediterranean-Scale Drought: Regional Datasets for Exceptional Meteorological Drought Events during 1975–2019
by Shifa Mathbout, Joan Albert Lopez-Bustins, Dominic Royé and Javier Martin-Vide
Atmosphere 2021, 12(8), 941; https://doi.org/10.3390/atmos12080941 - 22 Jul 2021
Cited by 42 | Viewed by 6041
Abstract
Drought is one of the most complex climate-related phenomena and is expected to progressively affect our lives by causing very serious environmental and socioeconomic damage by the end of the 21st century. In this study, we have extracted a dataset of exceptional meteorological [...] Read more.
Drought is one of the most complex climate-related phenomena and is expected to progressively affect our lives by causing very serious environmental and socioeconomic damage by the end of the 21st century. In this study, we have extracted a dataset of exceptional meteorological drought events between 1975 and 2019 at the country and subregional scales. Each drought event was described by its start and end date, intensity, severity, duration, areal extent, peak month and peak area. To define such drought events and their characteristics, separate analyses based on three drought indices were performed at 12-month timescale: the Standardized Precipitation Index (SPI), the Standardized Precipitation Evapotranspiration Index (SPEI), and the Reconnaissance Drought Index (RDI). A multivariate combined drought index (DXI) was developed by merging the previous three indices for more understanding of droughts’ features at the country and subregional levels. Principal component analysis (PCA) was used to identify five different drought subregions based on DXI-12 values for 312 Mediterranean stations and a new special score was defined to classify the multi-subregional exceptional drought events across the Mediterranean Basin (MED). The results indicated that extensive drought events occurred more frequently since the late 1990s, showing several drought hotspots in the last decades in the southeastern Mediterranean and northwest Africa. In addition, the results showed that the most severe events were more detected when more than single drought index was used. The highest percentage area under drought was also observed through combining the variations of three drought indices. Furthermore, the drought area in both dry and humid areas in the MED has also experienced a remarkable increase since the late 1990s. Based on a comparison of the drought events during the two periods—1975–1996 and 1997–2019—we find that the current dry conditions in the MED are more severe, intense, and frequent than the earlier period; moreover, the strongest dry conditions occurred in last two decades. The SPEI-12 and RDI-12 have a higher capacity in providing a more comprehensive description of the dry conditions because of the inclusion of temperature or atmospheric evaporative demand in their scheme. A complex range of atmospheric circulation patterns, particularly the Western Mediterranean Oscillation (WeMO) and East Atlantic/West Russia (EATL/WRUS), appear to play an important role in severe, intense and region-wide droughts, including the two most severe droughts, 1999–2001 and 2007–2012, with lesser influence of the NAO, ULMO and SCAND. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Spatiotemporal Variability of Precipitation Concentration and Drought Events in the Mediterranean Basin)
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28 pages, 9568 KiB  
Article
Future Projection of Precipitation Changes in the Júcar and Segura River Basins (Iberian Peninsula) by CMIP5 GCMs Local Downscaling
by Juan Javier Miró, María José Estrela, Jorge Olcina-Cantos and Javier Martin-Vide
Atmosphere 2021, 12(7), 879; https://doi.org/10.3390/atmos12070879 - 7 Jul 2021
Cited by 27 | Viewed by 3492
Abstract
The basins of the Júcar and Segura rivers, on the Mediterranean coast of the Iberian Peninsula, present a special water problem and are of particular interest regarding climate change. These basins are very vulnerable to a possible scenario of decreasing water resources. Recent [...] Read more.
The basins of the Júcar and Segura rivers, on the Mediterranean coast of the Iberian Peninsula, present a special water problem and are of particular interest regarding climate change. These basins are very vulnerable to a possible scenario of decreasing water resources. Recent studies on historic rainfall since 1955 have indicated an ongoing loss of precipitation in their headwaters, especially in the case of the Júcar river. The aim of the present study is to perform climate projections for the precipitation variable for several future periods (2021–2040, 2051–2070, 2081–2100) and emission scenarios (RCPs 4.5, 8.5) within the Júcar and Segura River Basin authorities. For this purpose, a set of CMIP5 global models have been used, as well as the CDRD-HR-EIP-1955-2016 database, as a source of local observed information. This database comprises nearly 900 precipitation series in both basins and has been used in recent studies to determine historic trends of change in these basins. A statistical downscaling of the global models for all available observed series has been applied using the LARS-WG method. The results, although variable according to the CMIP5 model used, show the continuation of the patterns of precipitation change in the future, as already observed in the historical series. The results also predict a clear reduction in precipitation in the long term. However, torrential rainfall tends to increase in the coastal areas in relation to that observed in the short-term predictions. These results, due to their high spatial resolution, are of great interest for their use in small-scale hydrological and spatial planning (regional and local), which is one of the current challenges of climate modeling. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Spatiotemporal Variability of Precipitation Concentration and Drought Events in the Mediterranean Basin)
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16 pages, 6544 KiB  
Article
Characterisation of Extreme Precipitation Events in the Pyrenees: From the Local to the Synoptic Scale
by Marc Lemus-Canovas, Joan Albert Lopez-Bustins, Javier Martín-Vide, Amar Halifa-Marin, Damián Insua-Costa, Joan Martinez-Artigas, Laura Trapero, Roberto Serrano-Notivoli and José María Cuadrat
Atmosphere 2021, 12(6), 665; https://doi.org/10.3390/atmos12060665 - 22 May 2021
Cited by 13 | Viewed by 4740
Abstract
Mountain systems within the Mediterranean region, e.g., the Pyrenees, are very sensitive to climate change. In the present study, we quantified the magnitude of extreme precipitation events and the number of days with torrential precipitation (daily precipitation ≥ 100 mm) in all the [...] Read more.
Mountain systems within the Mediterranean region, e.g., the Pyrenees, are very sensitive to climate change. In the present study, we quantified the magnitude of extreme precipitation events and the number of days with torrential precipitation (daily precipitation ≥ 100 mm) in all the rain gauges available in the Pyrenees for the 1981–2015 period, analyzing the contribution of the synoptic scale in this type of event. The easternmost (under Mediterranean influence) and north-westernmost (under Atlantic influence) areas of the Pyrenees registered the highest number of torrential events. The heaviest events are expected in the eastern part, i.e., 400 mm day−1 for a return period of 200 years. Northerly advections over the Iberian Peninsula, which present a low zonal index, i.e., implying a stronger meridional component, give rise to torrential events over the western Pyrenees; and easterly advections favour extreme precipitation over the eastern Pyrenees. The air mass travels a long way, from the east coast of North America, bringing heavy rainfall to the western Pyrenees. In the case of the torrential events over the eastern Pyrenees, the trajectory of the air mass causing the events in these areas is very short and originates in the Mediterranean Basin. The North Atlantic Oscillation (NAO) index has no influence upon the occurrence of torrential events in the Pyrenees, but these events are closely related to certain Mediterranean teleconnections such as the Western Mediterranean Oscillation (WeMO). Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Spatiotemporal Variability of Precipitation Concentration and Drought Events in the Mediterranean Basin)
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