6533b7dbfe1ef96bd1270849

RESEARCH PRODUCT

Heavy daily precipitation distribution in east-central Franceand west European meteorological patterns

subject

description

Principal Component Analysis is used to link the spatial distribution of Heavy Daily Precipitation (HDP) in East-Central France with meteorological patterns of the Meteo-France automatic classification, which takes into account 15 different meteorological parameters (e.g. geopotential heights at different levels, humidities, pseudo-adiabatic temperatures) over Western Europe. Every parameter is classified in 10 classes, or synoptic patterns. The annual PCA shows 3 dominant modes of HDP distribution, explaining more than 90% of the total variance. Associated atmospheric situations are obtained by using the scores of the 150 classes (10 per meteorological parameter). Other PCAs (i.e., half-annual and seasonal) show roughly the same results, except for the summer one.