THE ROLE OF THE LOW LEVEL JET IN A FLASH FLOOD EVENT OVER CENTRAL ARGENTINA

SALIO, PAOLA VERÓNICA; GARCÍA SKABAR, YANINA; NICOLINI, MATILDE

Landshut, Alemania

Conferencia; 5th European Conference on Severe Storms; 2009

European Severe Storms Laboratory

Flash flood events occur within minutes or hours of excessive rainfall, this kind of events can destroy buildings and triggers catastrophic situations due to sudden water stream. The central region of Argentina presents a flat terrain with a weak slope to the Atlantic Ocean. March 26 to April 1, 2007 was a week characterized by the presence of successive convective systems over central Argentina that generate strong rain rates, flooding large areas and producing important damages and lost of lives. A primary goal of the present work is to describe the synoptic and mesoscale characteristics of the environment associated to a flash flood case over the central region of Argentina, with a special emphasis in the relationship between the behaviour of convective precipitation and the evolution of the low level jet. In order to achieve this objective a numerical simulation is performed considering a version of the Brazilian Regional Atmospheric Modeling System (BRAMS), that include a microphysics scheme and explicit convection in the finest resolution grid and estimations of precipitation.