Articles | Volume 23, issue 9
https://doi.org/10.5194/hess-23-3885-2019
https://doi.org/10.5194/hess-23-3885-2019
Research article
 | 
24 Sep 2019
Research article |  | 24 Sep 2019

Local and remote moisture sources for extreme precipitation: a study of the two catastrophic 1982 western Mediterranean episodes

Damián Insua-Costa, Gonzalo Miguez-Macho, and María Carmen Llasat

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Short summary
Here, we study the main moisture sources of the two famous western Mediterranean flood events of autumn 1982 (October and November). Results confirm the hypothesis that a large amount of precipitable water was involved, which was to a great extent advected from the tropics and subtropics. This remote moisture transport occurred at medium levels of the atmosphere via moisture plumes or atmospheric rivers. During the October event the contribution of local sources was also important.