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Analysis of extreme rainfall in the Ebre Observatory (Spain)

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Abstract

The relationship between maximum rainfall rates for time intervals between 5 min and 24 h has been studied from almost a century (1905–2003) of rainfall data registered in the Ebre Observatory (Tarragona, Spain). Intensity–duration–frequency (IDF) curves and their master equation for every return period in the location have been obtained, as well as the probable maximum precipitation (PMP) for all the considered durations. In particular, the value of the 1-day PMP has resulted to be 415 mm, very similar to previous estimations of this variable for the same location. Extreme rainfall events recorded in this period have been analyzed and classified according to their temporal scale. Besides the three main classes of cases corresponding to the main meteorological scales, local, mesoscale, and synoptic, a fourth group constituted by complex events with high-intensity rates for a large range of durations has been identified also, indicating the contribution of different scale meteorological processes acting together in the origin of the rainfall. A weighted intensity index taking into account the maximum rainfall rate in representative durations of every meteorological scale has been calculated for every extreme rainfall event in order to reflect their complexity.

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Acknowledgments

We gratefully acknowledge Eduard Redaño for his contribution in the elaboration of figures. We also acknowledge the Servei Meteorològic de Catalunya (Generalitat de Catalunya) and Observatori de l’Ebre for providing the data analyzed in this work.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Center for Climate Change (C3), Campus Terres de l’Ebre, Universitat Rovira i Virgili, Avda. Remolins, 13-15, Tortosa, Spain

    Núria Pérez-Zanón

  2. Departament de Física i Enginyeria Nuclear (FEN), EET, Universitat Politècnica de Catalunya · BarcelonaTech (UPC), Campus de Terrassa, Edifici TR2, C/ Colom, 1, 08222, Terrassa, Spain

    M. Carmen Casas-Castillo

  3. Departament de Física i Enginyeria Nuclear (FEN), EPSEVG, Universitat Politècnica de Catalunya · BarcelonaTech (UPC), Víctor Balaguer s/n, 08800, Vilanova i la Geltrú, Spain

    Raúl Rodríguez-Solà

  4. Servei Meteorològic de Catalunya, Berlin, 38-46, 08029, Barcelona, Spain

    Juan Carlos Peña & Anna Rius

  5. Observatori de l’Ebre, CSIC-URL, Horta Alta, 38, 43520, Roquetes, Spain

    J. Germán Solé

  6. Departament d’Astronomia i Meteorologia (DAM), Facultat de Física, Universitat de Barcelona (UB), Martí i Franqués, 1, 08028, Barcelona, Spain

    Ángel Redaño

Authors
  1. Núria Pérez-Zanón
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  2. M. Carmen Casas-Castillo
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  3. Raúl Rodríguez-Solà
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  4. Juan Carlos Peña
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  5. Anna Rius
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  6. J. Germán Solé
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  7. Ángel Redaño
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Corresponding author

Correspondence to M. Carmen Casas-Castillo.

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Pérez-Zanón, N., Casas-Castillo, M.C., Rodríguez-Solà, R. et al. Analysis of extreme rainfall in the Ebre Observatory (Spain). Theor Appl Climatol 124, 935–944 (2016). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00704-015-1476-0

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s00704-015-1476-0

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