Atmospheric circulation patterns, cloud-to-ground lightning, and locally intense convective rainfall associated with debris flow initiation in the Dolomite Alps of northeastern Italy

Underwood, S. Jeffrey; Schultz, Michael D.; Berti, Metteo; Gregoretti, Carlo; Simoni, Alessandro; Mote, Thomas L.; Saylor, Anthony M.

doi:https://doi.org/10.5194/nhess-16-509-2016

Articles | Volume 16, issue 2

https://doi.org/10.5194/nhess-16-509-2016

© Author(s) 2016. This work is distributed under
the Creative Commons Attribution 3.0 License.

https://doi.org/10.5194/nhess-16-509-2016

© Author(s) 2016. This work is distributed under
the Creative Commons Attribution 3.0 License.

Articles | Volume 16, issue 2

Research article

|

22 Feb 2016

Research article |

| 22 Feb 2016

Atmospheric circulation patterns, cloud-to-ground lightning, and locally intense convective rainfall associated with debris flow initiation in the Dolomite Alps of northeastern Italy

S. Jeffrey Underwood, Michael D. Schultz, Metteo Berti, Carlo Gregoretti, Alessandro Simoni, Thomas L. Mote, and Anthony M. Saylor

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Final revised paper (published on 22 Feb 2016)
Supplement to the final revised paper
Preprint (discussion started on 25 Sep 2015)
Supplement to the preprint

Interactive discussion

Status: closed

AC: Author comment | RC: Referee comment | SC: Short comment | EC: Editor comment

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- Supplement

RC C2097: 'Reivew nhess-2015-231', Thea Turkington, 22 Oct 2015
- AC C2861: 'Final Author Responses to Reviewer One Comments', Jeffrey Underwood, 01 Jan 2016
- AC C2867: 'Final Author Responses to Reviewer One Comments', Jeffrey Underwood, 01 Jan 2016
RC C2184: 'Review of manuscript by Underwood et al.', Anonymous Referee #2, 05 Nov 2015
- AC C2873: 'Final Author Responses to Reviewer Two Comments', Jeffrey Underwood, 01 Jan 2016

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Short summary

This study examines 12 debris flow events occurring in northeast Italy. The study is one of the first to incorporate synoptic-scale atmospheric pattern analysis and meso-scale cloud-to-ground lighting flashes (CGFs) to analyze locally intense convective rainfall (LICR) that initiates debris flows in the Dolomite Alps. Three synoptic classifications were identified. CGFs are shown to be very good indicators of LICR and debris flows, confirmed via time-series analysis and correlation analysis.