THE COMPARISON BETWEEN TWO EARLY BLIZZARD EVENTS OCCURRED IN ROMANIA DURING THE TIME

Abstract

The blizzard is the most complex phenomenon that usually occurs during the winter season, the time period between December and February. But, in some specific synoptic conditions, blizzards can occur in November or even March, Moldovan (2003). An early blizzard episode that occurs in October it is an extreme event with severe consequences over people, environment and agriculture. In Romania, since the first synoptic observations are made, the earliest blizzard phenomenon was recorded on October 21, 1931 at Dorohoi (Botoșani County–North Romania) and another one on October 22, 1938 at Sinaia (Prahova County–South-East Romania). At Bucharest the earliest blizzard phenomenon was recorded on October 27, 1912, Bălescu and Beșleagă (1962). In southeastern Romania, the third decade of October 2014 was marked by the Arctic perturbation over Europe and that’s why on October 25 was triggered the winter specific phenomenon - blizzard. The time duration of the phenomenon was only 5 to 8 hours, but its consequences over environment and society were significant-the impact on military aviation that could not operate on that day and also the impact on agriculture (cultures with unfinished cycle of vegetation). In this paper is presented a comparison between two early blizzard events: the one in October 1912 and the one in October 2014, using the synoptic interpretation for both cases.

Keywords

• early blizzard phenomenon; synoptic comparative analysis