The relationship between precipitation depth and weather circulation patterns over Sicily

Abstract

Some weather circulation patterns (WPs) derived by the UK Met Office and defining a certain type of atmospheric circulation over Europe have been recently used to analyze the relationship of the regional UK precipitation and drought with respect to the atmospheric circulation over Europe (Richardson et al. 2018). In this study, we attempt to find out one or more relationships between precipitation depth and weather patterns over a non UK-centred domain, such as Sicily (Italy), which is characterized by a totally different climate as compared to the climate of UK. Since the island has been affected by many floods in the last years, occurred as a consequence of extreme rainfall events, it would be very important to understand if there exist some European WPs that are responsible for causing extreme rainfall events on the island. This aspect could be very helpful in reducing the flood risk, since it would make it possible to prevent extreme rainfall events, almost likely leading to floods, by simply preventing the atmospheric circulation with a meteorological model.