What is it about?
On 20 February 2010, the Madeira island (Portugal) experienced an event of extreme precipitation, with high impact at the surface, causing more than 40 deaths and damage estimated at millions of euros. The study analysed Heavy Precipitation Events (HPE) that occurred in the island during the winter 2009-2010.
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Photo by Inge Maria on Unsplash
Why is it important?
Our findings showed two aspects about the topic. First, associated with the large scale environment, and the second one linked to orographic effects. In the first case, apart from a cyclone affecting the island, it was identified the presence of atmospheric rivers (ARs) coupled to frontal systems transporting tropical moisture toward the island. For the orographic effects, the simulations at 1km resolution showed maximums of accumulated precipitation in the highlands.
Perspectives
The study was a step towards the understanding of some atmospheric environments producing heavy orographic precipitation in Madeira highlands, in particular due to the indentification of atmospheric rivers in six of the seven events analysed during that winter.
Dr Flavio T. Couto
Instituto de Ciências da Terra, Universidade de Évora
Read the Original
This page is a summary of: Analysis of intense rainfall events on Madeira Island during the 2009/2010 winter, Natural Hazards and Earth System Science, July 2012, Copernicus GmbH,
DOI: 10.5194/nhess-12-2225-2012.
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