Advances in Science and Research www.adv-sci-res.net 1992-0628 1992-0636 2 7th EMS Annual Meeting and 8th European Conference on Applications of Meteorology 2007 2008 10.5194/asr-2-127-2008 http://www.adv-sci-res.net/2/127/2008/ http://www.adv-sci-res.net/2/127/2008/asr-2-127-2008.html http://www.adv-sci-res.net/2/127/2008/asr-2-127-2008.pdf 127 131 2008-07-09 A study of the flood events in Cyprus K. Savvidou K. A. Nicolaides S. C. Michaelides A. Orphanou M. Charalambous S. Adamou Meteorological Service, Nicosia, Cyprus Almost every year, localised and in some cases more widespread floodings affect parts of Cyprus, causing damages to properties destruction to infrastructure and housing and sometimes the loss of human life. Various factors such as the meteorological situation and type and intensity of precipitation, the geomorphology, the geology and the human intervention to geomorphology are responsible for flood events. In the present study, only the meteorological situation and the associated mechanisms are examined in an attempt to gain the essential knowledge for improvement of local weather forecasts. <br><br> The study period covers a thirteen-year period, from 1994 to 2006, in which 43 cases of flooding were reported, mainly over urbanized areas. The dominant favorable weather conditions for flood events are either the existence of a depression or weather conditions of convectional type. According to these two factors, the flood events were classified into two categories; the "instability'' category which includes isolated flood events of short duration, and the "depression'' category which includes widespread flood events of long duration. Blanchet, G.: Le temps au Liban, Approche d' une Climatologie Synoptique, Thèse 3ème Cycle, Lyon. T.I., 447 (text et tab.) & T.II (Atlas), 1976. El-Fandy, M. G.: Barometric Lows of Cyprus, Q. J. Roy. Meteor. Soc., 72, 291–306, 1946. Houssos, E. E. and Bartzokas, A.: Extreme precipitation events in NW Greece, Adv. Geosci., 7, 91–96, 2006. Jacovides, C. J. and Yonetani, T.: An evaluation of instability indices for thunderstorm prediction in Greater Cyprus, Weather Forecast., 5, 559–569, 1990. Kallos, G. and Metaxas, D. A.: Synoptic processes for the formation of Cyprus lows, Riv. Meteorol. Aeronau., XL(2–3), 121–138, 1980. König, M: Atmosheric Instability Parameters Derived from MSG SEVIRI Observations, EUMETSAT Technical Memorandum No. 9, 2002. Maheras, P.: A factorial analysis of Mediterranean precipitation, Arch. Meteor. Geophy. B., 36, 1–14, 1985. Michaelides, S., Nicolaides, K., and Karacostas, T.: Statistical characteristics of the cold season depressions over the area of Cyprus, Meteorologick\'y è,asopis 7, 61–66, 2004. Michalopoulou, H. and Jacovides, C.:Instability Indices for Cyprus Area, Meteorol. Atmos. Phys., 37, 153–158, 1987. Nicolaides, K.: Synoptic and dynamic study of the depression cases affected the wider area of Cyprus during cold months, PhD thesis, Aristotelian University, Thessaloniki, Greece, 2005 (in Greek). Nicolaides, K., Michaelides, S., and Karacostas, T.: Spatial distribution of some dynamic parameters during the evolution of selected depressions over the area of Cyprus, Int. J. Climatol., 24, 1829–1844, 2004. University of Wyoming: http://weather.uwyo.edu/upperair/sounding.html, last access: 15 December 2007.