Cold wave in Europe, late winter 1971

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Cold wave in Europe, late winter 1971
General weather situation Ingress of polar cold air
storm Cold spell
Data
Emergence Mid-February 1971
Climax first week of March
resolution Mid-March 1971
temperature -34.6 ° C (Pl. Rosa, Aosta Valley, 3488 m, March 6, 1971, national record Italy )
consequences
affected areas Central Europe , Italy
also cold spell in January of the year

The cold spell in Europe in the late winter of 1971 was a cold snap during the late winter of 1970/1971, which caused abnormally low temperatures in Central Europe and Italy.

meteorology

After a cold spell in January and a phase that was much too mild for several weeks, an ingress of polar cold air began around February 15 . The event was caused by a strong turbulence in the jet stream , which steered several drops of cold air to Central Europe, while the Azores high let warm air advance to Iceland . In this preliminary phase, the cold air reached Sicily , the Mediterranean coast of Africa and the Aegean Sea several times . The most powerful of these air masses migrated southwards via Scandinavia to Central Europe from February 25th , with temperatures well below −20 ° C, and persisted into the second week of March.

In Sweden, for example, the event was the second longest nationwide cold spell between 1950 and 2000 (after February 1970 and with the turn of the year 1978/79 ) with 8  days of ice in a row at all measuring points (February 26 to March 5 ).

As early as March 1st, measurements in Rome were −4 °, in Naples −1 °. On the 2nd, it started snowing all over Italy, in Rome, for example, it snowed for 5 days with almost 20 cm of fresh snow. There was also snow on the coast of the Var and on the Côte d'Azur , about 20 cm Cannes , in St. Tropez it snowed for the first time in 100 years. Also Corsica and Sardinia ( Cagliari , March 6th). experienced rare snow down to the lowlands.

The cold spell peaked in the Alps on March 5th and in the Mediterranean on March 6th. Southern France reached the lowest values ​​ever measured ( Cannes ; −1.9 ° C, Nice 0.7 ° C), in the Abruzzo in Rocca di Mezzo (near L'Aquila) the temperature was −23 ° C. On this day , the lowest temperature ever recorded in Italy was recorded at the Plateau Rosa station at 3488 m in the Aosta Valley , at −34.6 ° C. -6.6 ° C in Trieste was the lowest March temperature since 1841, and that night the Venice lagoon was partially frozen over.

As of March 8, the general weather situation changes somewhat, with warm south-westerly currents from Africa and the return of the warm Atlantic air over the British Isles, the cold ended in southern Italy (up to +20 ° C), but extended to northern Spain . For example, the lowest temperature of this event for France was recorded on March 7th in Morbier in the Jura at −29 ° C. The cold air masses over Central Europe were then only pushed towards the east in mid-March.

literature

  • F. Hufnagl: The relapse of cold in Austria in the late winter of 1970/71. In: Austrian Society for Meteorology: Weather and Life 23 (1971), pp. 76-77.

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ a b Il Meteomusue der Cervino: La proposta SMS & Nimbus per il recupero della stazione meteo di Plateau Rosa. nimbus.it, undated (accessed February 28, 2017).
  2. ↑ a b Lit. Hufnagl 1971, p. 76.
  3. ^ A b Modèles - Archives des réanalyses du NCEP: Mercredi February 17, 1971, 7:00 p.m. locale. Meteofrance: meteociel (in particular Température 850hPa and Jet Stream, 330hPa ; the values ​​of this calculated re-analysis are not precise, especially with regard to the zero degree limit).
  4. ↑ a b Dimanche February 21, 1971, 19:00 locale. meteociel .
  5. ↑ a b Mercredi February 24, 1971, 7 p.m. locale. meteociel .
  6. ↑ a b c Samdi February 27, 1971, 7:00 p.m. locale. meteociel .
  7. ↑ a b c d e Freddo e neve del Marzo 1971. Davide Di Santo in: Pergola Meteo , undated (accessed February 28, 2018).
  8. ^ Mardi, March 2, 1971, 7:00 p.m. locale. meteociel .
  9. ↑ Vendrdi March 5, 1971, 7:00 p.m. locale. meteociel .
  10. ↑ a b Lundi March 8, 1971, 7:00 p.m. locale. meteociel .
  11. ↑ Longer perioder med nationella isdygn. SHMI: Bloggar> Väderleken , February 23, 2018.
  12. ↑ a b March 1971: sciabolata artico-continentale e la neve cadde a Roma. Massimo Aceti in: Meteo Giornale , March 1, 2005.
  13. ↑ a b c d Les hivers en France: L'hiver n'en fini pas… - Le mois de mars 1971. Guillaume Séchet on meteo-paris.com, 2010 - Weather maps for France in Les chroniques météo de l'année 1971… ibid.
  14. ↑ Point sur la vague de froid en cours. Meteofrance: Actualités , February 27, 2018.
  15. ↑ Neve e Freddo nel marzo 1971: un'invernata storica! meteolive.it, February 5, 2018.
  16. ^ La terribile giornata del 06 March 1971. Marco Rossi in: Meteo Giornale , July 3, 2005.
  17. ↑ DImanche March 14, 1971, 7:00 p.m. locale. meteociel .