Weather Extremes in the Euro Atlantic Region: Assessment and Impacts
Authors: Liberato Margarida L. R. , Ramos Alexandre M. 
Published: March 2022

&lt;p&gt;Despite being major sources of hazards and having impacts on local and national populations, environment and economies, processes involved in extremes&amp;#8217; intensification and generation of disastrous impacts, such as extreme and widespread dry and wet events or flash flooding, are not fully understood yet. Therefore, the goal of WEx-Atlantic project is to perform research, to improve knowledge on weather extremes in the North Atlantic European sector and to communicate it to society. Considered extremes are strong winds and heavy hydrometeorological (HM &amp;#8211; dry and wet) events associated with extratropical cyclones (EC), frontal systems and atmospheric rivers (AR).&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;WEx-Atlantic contributes to improve our understanding on the assessment of weather systems and the underlying physical mechanisms, variability and expected changes under global warming, as well as meteorological, environmental (e.g. forest) and socioeconomic (e.g. renewable wind energy and power grid) impacts on Portugal including the Macaronesia Islands.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;WEx-Atlantic applies state-of-the-art techniques to detect and track weather systems, including AR, mid-latitude systems and weather types to reanalysis datasets as well as to GCMs. Here a review of WEx-Atlantic research and new contribution is presented.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;&amp;#160;&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;This work was supported by project &amp;#8220;Weather Extremes in the Euro Atlantic Region: Assessment and Impacts&amp;#8212;WEx-Atlantic&amp;#8221; (PTDC/CTA-MET/29233/2017) funded by Funda&amp;#231;&amp;#227;o para a Ci&amp;#234;ncia e a Tecnologia, Portugal (FCT). Alexandre. M. Ramos was supported by the FCT Scientific Employment Stimulus 2017 (CEECIND/00027/2017).&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;&amp;#160;&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;Algarra I, et al. Significant increase of global anomalous moisture uptake feeding landfalling Atmospheric Rivers. Nat Commun 11, 5082 (2020). https://doi.org/10.1038/s41467-020-18876-w&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;Gon&amp;#231;alves A, et al. Wind Energy Assessment during High-Impact Winter Storms in Southwestern Europe. Atmosphere. 2021; 12(4):509. https://doi.org/10.3390/atmos12040509&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;H&amp;#233;nin R, et al. A ranking of concurrent precipitation and wind events for the Iberian Peninsula. Int J Climatol.; 41(2), 1421-1437 (2021) https://doi.org/10.1002/joc.6829&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;H&amp;#233;nin R, et al. Assigning precipitation to mid-latitudes fronts on sub-daily scales in the North Atlantic and European sector: Climatology and trends. Int J Climatol.; 39(1), 317&amp;#8211;330, (2019) https://doi.org/10.1002/joc.5808&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;Liberato MLR, et al. Rankings of extreme and widespread dry and wet events in the Iberian Peninsula between 1901 and 2016. Earth Syst. Dynam., 12, 197&amp;#8211;210 (2021) https://doi.org/10.5194/esd-12-197-2021&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;Nieto R, et al. Contribution of the main moisture sources to precipitation during extreme peak precipitation months, Adv. Water Res., 131, (2019), 103385 https://doi.org/10.1016/j.advwatres.2019.103385&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;Ramos AM, et al. Impacts of Atmospheric Rivers in Extreme Precipitation on the European Macaronesian Islands. Atmosphere 2018, 9, 325, (2018) https://doi.org/10.3390/atmos9080325&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;Reale M, et al. A Global Climatology of Explosive Cyclones using a Multi-Tracking Approach, Tellus A, 71:1, 1-19, (2019) https://doi.org/10.1080/16000870.2019.1611340&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;Ribeiro SL, et al. Development of a catalogue of damage in Portuguese forest associated with extreme extratropical cyclones. Science of The Total Environment, 151948, 2021 https://doi.org/10.1016/j.scitotenv.2021.151948&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;Sor&amp;#237; R, et al. Hydrometeorological droughts in the Mi&amp;#241;o&amp;#8211;Limia&amp;#8211;Sil hydrographic demarcation (northwestern Iberian Peninsula): the role of atmospheric drivers, Nat. Hazards Earth Syst. Sci., 20, 1805&amp;#8211;1832, (2020) https://doi.org/10.5194/nhess-20-1805-2020&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;Stojanovic M, et al. Consecutive Extratropical Cyclones Daniel, Elsa and Fabien, and Their Impact on the Hydrological Cycle of Mainland Portugal. Water. (2021); 13(11):1476. https://doi.org/10.3390/w13111476&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;V&amp;#225;zquez M, et al. Atmospheric Moisture Sources Associated with Extreme Precipitation During the Peak Precipitation Month. Weather and Climate Extremes, 30, 100289 (2020) https://doi.org/10.1016/j.wace.2020.100289&lt;/p&gt;