Flash heat and flash cold phenomena in the Iberian Peninsula since 1900

Abstract

Rapid and sudden changes in air temperature can be classified as extreme events, having a risk for human activities, human health and ecosystems. Flash heat and flash cold events are investigated in the Iberian Peninsula during since 1900. Flash heat events (Mazon et al., 2014; http://glossary.ametsoc.org/wiki/Flash_heat) is described as a discrete period of abnormal warming, nominally lasting more than an hour but less than a day (between heat burst and heat wave phenomena), occurring on the meso-beta scale. In a similar way, flash cold has been defined as a rapid drop of the air temperature lasting more than an hour but less than a day. We investigate the tendency since 1900 of these type of flash events in the Iberian Peninsula from homogeneous series of daily maximum and minimum temperature. The trend and the distribution of the intensity of these events are shown. Additionally, we show the convenience to analyze these type of flash events for a better understanding of the atmospheric dynamics