TY - JOUR
T1 - European West Coast atmospheric rivers
T2 - A scale to characterize strength and impacts
AU - Eiras-Barca, Jorge
AU - Ramos, Alexandre M.
AU - Algarra, Iago
AU - Vázquez, Marta
AU - Dominguez, Francina
AU - Miguez-Macho, Gonzalo
AU - Nieto, Raquel
AU - Gimeno, Luis
AU - Taboada, Juan
AU - Ralph, F. Martin
N1 - Funding Information:
J.E.B. was supported by the program ED481B 2018/069 and M.V was supported by the program ED481B 2018/062 both from the Spanish regional government Xunta de Galicia . J.E.B. was also supported by the Fulbright Commission (U.S. Department of State). I.A. was supported by the Spanish Government ( MINECO ) under grant CGL2015-65141 -R. F.D. was supported by the National Science Foundation (NSF) CAREER Award AGS 1454089 . Computing time was provided by the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign. R.N., L.G., M.V., I.A. and J.E.B. acknowledge the LAGRIMA Project ( RTI2018-095772-B-I00 ) funded by Ministerio de Ciencia, Innovación y Universidades, Spain ; and the support from the Xunta de Galicia under the Project ED431C 2017/64-GRC “Programa de Consolidación e Estructuración de Unidades de Investigación Competitivas” (Grupos de Referen cia Competitiva). A.M.R. was supported by Fundação para a Ciência e Tecnologia (Potugal) by project “Weather Extremes in the Euro Atlantic Region: Assessment and Impacts-WEx-Atlantic” ( PTDC/CTA-MET/29233/2017 ). A.M.R was also supported by the Scientific Employment Stimulus 2017 from Fundação para a Ciência e Tecnologia (FCT, CEECIND/00027/2017 ). The authors also thank the two kind anonymous reviewers, whose comments helped to improve the manuscript substantially.
Funding Information:
J.E.B. was supported by the program ED481B 2018/069 and M.V was supported by the program ED481B 2018/062 both from the Spanish regional government Xunta de Galicia. J.E.B. was also supported by the Fulbright Commission (U.S. Department of State). I.A. was supported by the Spanish Government (MINECO) under grant CGL2015-65141-R. F.D. was supported by the National Science Foundation (NSF) CAREER Award AGS 1454089. Computing time was provided by the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign. R.N. L.G. M.V. I.A. and J.E.B. acknowledge the LAGRIMA Project (RTI2018-095772-B-I00) funded by Ministerio de Ciencia, Innovaci?n y Universidades, Spain; and the support from the Xunta de Galicia under the Project ED431C 2017/64-GRC ?Programa de Consolidaci?n e Estructuraci?n de Unidades de Investigaci?n Competitivas? (Grupos de Referen cia Competitiva). A.M.R. was supported by Funda??o para a Ci?ncia e Tecnologia (Potugal) by project ?Weather Extremes in the Euro Atlantic Region: Assessment and Impacts-WEx-Atlantic? (PTDC/CTA-MET/29233/2017). A.M.R was also supported by the Scientific Employment Stimulus 2017 from Funda??o para a Ci?ncia e Tecnologia (FCT, CEECIND/00027/2017). The authors also thank the two kind anonymous reviewers, whose comments helped to improve the manuscript substantially.
Publisher Copyright:
© 2021 The Author(s)
PY - 2021/3
Y1 - 2021/3
N2 - This manuscript applies the recently-created atmospheric river intensity and impacts scale (AR Scale) to the European continent. The AR Scale uses an Eulerian perspective based solely upon the time series of integrated vapor transport (IVT) over a given geographic location (often represented by a model or reanalysis “grid cell”). The scale assigns events with persistent, strong IVT at that location to one of five levels (AR1 to AR5), or if the IVT is too weak or short-lived it is determined not to be an AR. AR1 events are primarily beneficial, AR2, 3 and 4 include a mix of beneficial and hazardous impacts, while AR5s are primarily hazardous. The frequency of occurrence, the associated probability of anomalous precipitation and the amount of precipitation explained by each AR rank are provided across Europe for the extended winter season (from October through March). AR1 and AR2 events are the most frequent and explain most of the observed precipitation, but they are associated with a low probability of extreme rainfall. Although AR3, AR4 and AR5 events are much less frequent, and normally provide a smaller fraction of annual precipitation, they are associated with a high probability of extreme rainfall. These results show remarkable variability among the different regions of the European continent. This manuscript also provides an AR detection catalog over Europe for the period 1980–2019, and a simplified version of the algorithm used to rank the events from AR1 to AR5.
AB - This manuscript applies the recently-created atmospheric river intensity and impacts scale (AR Scale) to the European continent. The AR Scale uses an Eulerian perspective based solely upon the time series of integrated vapor transport (IVT) over a given geographic location (often represented by a model or reanalysis “grid cell”). The scale assigns events with persistent, strong IVT at that location to one of five levels (AR1 to AR5), or if the IVT is too weak or short-lived it is determined not to be an AR. AR1 events are primarily beneficial, AR2, 3 and 4 include a mix of beneficial and hazardous impacts, while AR5s are primarily hazardous. The frequency of occurrence, the associated probability of anomalous precipitation and the amount of precipitation explained by each AR rank are provided across Europe for the extended winter season (from October through March). AR1 and AR2 events are the most frequent and explain most of the observed precipitation, but they are associated with a low probability of extreme rainfall. Although AR3, AR4 and AR5 events are much less frequent, and normally provide a smaller fraction of annual precipitation, they are associated with a high probability of extreme rainfall. These results show remarkable variability among the different regions of the European continent. This manuscript also provides an AR detection catalog over Europe for the period 1980–2019, and a simplified version of the algorithm used to rank the events from AR1 to AR5.
KW - Atmospheric rivers
KW - Impacts
KW - Precipitation
KW - Scale
UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/record.url?scp=85100109939&partnerID=8YFLogxK
UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/citedby.url?scp=85100109939&partnerID=8YFLogxK
U2 - 10.1016/j.wace.2021.100305
DO - 10.1016/j.wace.2021.100305
M3 - Article
AN - SCOPUS:85100109939
SN - 2212-0947
VL - 31
JO - Weather and Climate Extremes
JF - Weather and Climate Extremes
M1 - 100305
ER -