Citation

Llasat MC, Rodriguez R. Nat. Hazards 1992; 5(2): 133-151.

Copyright

(Copyright © 1992, Holtzbrinck Springer Nature Publishing Group)

DOI

10.1007/BF00127002

PMID

unavailable

Abstract

A study of the synoptic situation which produced the catastrophic floods of November 1988 in Catalonia (in the northeast of the Iberian Peninsula) is presented. Analyses of the vertical structure, potential instability, precipitable water, and instability index are made through the radiosounding data from Palma, Majorca. It is found that the 1988 situation is included in type I intense convective events in Catalonia (classification obtained from all the events since 1950, (Llasat, 1989)). It was characterized by: Ω-pattern in the middle and high troposphere, the ridge axis east of Catalonia. High pressure over Europe. South-easterly winds in the lower troposphere with warm and moist humid air advection and south-westerlies aloft over Catalonia. Strong instability (convective and latent). Penetration of Atlantic air. In the same way, according to the area affected it belongs to type A, with the major part of the rain falling on the coastal area. Given the duration and intensity, it was a flash-flood, unlike the majority of floods in Catalonia. The aim of this paper is to present this kind of event by developing a typical case (an English version of the general classification is in preparation).

Language: en