EXTRA - EXTreme Rains in the Alps

The goal of EXTRA is to characterize extreme precipitations in the Alpine region, with a specific focus on Lombardia, and the climatic conditions that favor their occurence, in order to improve the predictability of dangerous events and the skills of operational hydro-meteorological warning systems. Rather than focusing on the short term evolution of local perturbations with the aim of improving meteorological forecasts, we take a different approach by focusing in the large spatial and temporal scales with the aim of improving seasonal predoctions of extreme precipitations. We aim at identifying here the climatic conditions that favor the occurence of heavy rains in the Alpine region, with a specif focus on Lombardia. We will use climatic indices that are known to affect the dynamics of weather pertubations across the European continent , such as teleconnection indices. Our study will also include the analysis of regional and seasonal averages of tropospheric conditions, other measure on the thermodynamic state if the atmosphere and measures if the upper sea conditions as possible precursors if heavy rains.