title: Precipitation variability in the Meuse basin in relation to atmospheric circulation.
abstract: The distribution of precipitation events in the Meuse basin during the past century has been found to reflect the large-scale atmospheric circulation, as characterised by the Grosswetterlagen system. Statistical analysis of the long observation records (1911-2002) for the basin showed that although the annual (November to October) and winter half-year (November to April) frequencies of wet days > or = 1 mm/day) were nearly stable, the associated precipitation amounts have significantly increased since 1980. From 1980 onwards, the very wet days (> or = 10 mm/day) in the winter half-year have become more frequent. No obvious change was identified for the summer half-year (May to October) very wet days. Both the precipitation amounts of wet and very wet days in the winter half-year and the occurrence of associated atmospheric circulation of the types/sub-types west cyclone, southwest cyclone and northwest cyclone showed a significant increase around 1980.
authors.affiliation: UNESCO-IHE Institute for Water Education, P.O. Box 3015, 2601 DA Delft, The Netherlands. tumin1@unesco-ihe.org
authors.forename: M
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Tu
authors.forename: P J M
authors.initials: PJ
authors.lastname: de Laat
authors.forename: M J
authors.initials: MJ
authors.lastname: Hall
authors.forename: M J M
authors.initials: MJ
authors.lastname: de Wit
mesh_terms: D000392:Air Movements; D001272:Atmosphere; D005060:Europe; D011891:Rain; D045483:Rivers; D012621:Seasons