Autor(es):
Couto, Flavio 
; Salgado, Rui ; Costa, Maria João
Data: 2011
Identificador Persistente: http://hdl.handle.net/10174/3231
Origem: Repositório Científico da Universidade de Évora
Assunto(s): Extreme precipitation events; mesoscale model
Descrição
Extreme orographic precipitation events are a common
cause of natural hazards such as flash floods, landslides, and
avalanches in mountainous regions (Roe, 2005), and may be
caused by different mechanisms. Situated in the Subtropical
Atlantic Ocean (32º 45' N and 17º 00'W), Figure 1, the
Madeira Island is the largest island of the Madeira
Archipelago, with surface area of 737 km2, a length of 58
km, a 23 km width and a maximum altitude of 1861m (Pico
Ruivo), consisting of a barrier elongated in the east-west
direction (Prada et al., 2009) and presenting favorable
conditions for generation or intensification of orographic
precipitation, sometimes responsible by high records and
several social-economical damages. During the winter
2009/2010, some events of heavy precipitation were
observed in Madeira Island, mainly in high regions, as
occurred on 22 December 2009, when intense rainfall was
responsible for economic damages in isolated points of the
island. On the other hand, in the last years, the use of highresolution
simulations are becoming a common tool for
diagnosis and prognosis of intense precipitation events
around the world. Therefore, this study aims at analyzing the
main aspects associated to the generation/enhancement of
precipitation in Madeira Island, verifying the model's ability
for the diagnostic of intense precipitation in a region where
the orographic effects are predominant.
