Alboran (eastern side of Sierra Nevada) and on the Muleya Valley (east of the Rif
mountain ranges).
Water resource is a critical issue. Freshwater is unevenly distributed in time and
space with few short-duration heavy precipitation events and long drought periods.
The region is prone to high-impact events such as Heavy Precipitation Event (HPE)
and flash floods mainly taking place in Fall (Ducrocq et al. 2014). During this
season, the Alboran Sea is still relatively warm (Fig. 3.16), and the slowly moving
cut off lows, interacting with the coastal mountain ranges, are able to organize quasistationary low-level warm and moist marine flows that can produce heavy rainfalls.
HPEs occur also during winter in the seacoast (Polvorinos et al. 1999; SánchezLaulhé 2006).
HPEs are typically associated with back-building quasi-stationary mesoscale
convective systems—MCSs—(Bluestein and Jain 1985) (Fig. 3.7). MCSs become
nearly stationary when the new convective cells occur upstream of the existing
convection, facing a conditionally unstable low-level marine flow. Successive triggering of convective cells over the same region is essential for accumulating high
rainfall totals in a short time; orographic lifting has been widely proposed as the
causative mechanism to trigger the deep convection in the same place (e.g., Rotunno
and Ferretti 2001; Bousquet and Smull 2006). But also the establishment of a cold
pool induced by the MCS itself can force the uplift of the incoming flows and
40°N
30°N
10°W
0°
10°E
40°N
30°N
10°W
0°
10°E
40°N
30°N
10°W
–5.0 –2.5 0.0 2.5 5.0 7.5 10.0 12.5 15.0
Temp. 2 m. (C)
17.5 20.0 22.5 25.0 27.5 30.0 32.5 35.0 37.5
0°
10°E
40°N
30°N
10°W
0°
10°E
Fig. 3.3 Mean seasonal 2 m temperature for the period (1979–2017) using the ERA5 dataset: (a)
winter (DJF), (b) spring (MAM), (c) summer (JJA), (d) autumn (SON)
34
J. M. Sánchez-Laulhé et al.
mountain ranges).
Water resource is a critical issue. Freshwater is unevenly distributed in time and
space with few short-duration heavy precipitation events and long drought periods.
The region is prone to high-impact events such as Heavy Precipitation Event (HPE)
and flash floods mainly taking place in Fall (Ducrocq et al. 2014). During this
season, the Alboran Sea is still relatively warm (Fig. 3.16), and the slowly moving
cut off lows, interacting with the coastal mountain ranges, are able to organize quasistationary low-level warm and moist marine flows that can produce heavy rainfalls.
HPEs occur also during winter in the seacoast (Polvorinos et al. 1999; SánchezLaulhé 2006).
HPEs are typically associated with back-building quasi-stationary mesoscale
convective systems—MCSs—(Bluestein and Jain 1985) (Fig. 3.7). MCSs become
nearly stationary when the new convective cells occur upstream of the existing
convection, facing a conditionally unstable low-level marine flow. Successive triggering of convective cells over the same region is essential for accumulating high
rainfall totals in a short time; orographic lifting has been widely proposed as the
causative mechanism to trigger the deep convection in the same place (e.g., Rotunno
and Ferretti 2001; Bousquet and Smull 2006). But also the establishment of a cold
pool induced by the MCS itself can force the uplift of the incoming flows and
40°N
30°N
10°W
0°
10°E
40°N
30°N
10°W
0°
10°E
40°N
30°N
10°W
–5.0 –2.5 0.0 2.5 5.0 7.5 10.0 12.5 15.0
Temp. 2 m. (C)
17.5 20.0 22.5 25.0 27.5 30.0 32.5 35.0 37.5
0°
10°E
40°N
30°N
10°W
0°
10°E
Fig. 3.3 Mean seasonal 2 m temperature for the period (1979–2017) using the ERA5 dataset: (a)
winter (DJF), (b) spring (MAM), (c) summer (JJA), (d) autumn (SON)
34
J. M. Sánchez-Laulhé et al.