Meteo-hydrological analysis of intense flash-flood events over Southern Italy

The intense rainfall systems typically forming on the Mediterranean basin are often characterized by trajectories which are directed to the Southern part of the Italian Peninsula. With exception of the so called Tropical Like-Cyclone (TLC), that is a well-organized system rotating around a central eye with a strong surface wind, the majority of the flash-flood events are generated by deep convective rainfall characterized by a small scale domain and a very short life time. As demonstrated by CHARAVALLOTI & GABRIELE (2009) these systems can be extremely localized up to the basin scale and the intense precipitation associated to them are responsible for strong runoffs. For this reason, these systems are very difficult to model and appear substantially unpredictable. Furthermore, the observations with meteorological satellites are often not representative of the system characteristics and the use of rain gauges is generally inadequate to fully reconstruct the ground rainfall field.