An Episode of Late Blizzard, 25-26 March 2013

Abstract

Climatologically speaking, March is a month of transition, from the cold season to a less cold season, and, therefore, weather phenomena occur in a different way from how they usually do during the cold season. The transition between seasons or a late winter can sometimes cause phenomena that usually happened in January or February, at the end of March. Such a case was the snowstorm occurred in two episodes (22nd - 24th and 25th - 27th of March 2013) in Romania in March 2013. In this paper is analyzed the first episode which affected southeastern Romania from different points of view: climatologically, synoptically, economically and social. It was used climatologically data over a period of 112 years, as well as a data for the first 3 month of 2013 which were provided by the National Meteorological Administration (NMA). It has been used synoptic maps, different pressure levels maps, and satellite data, radar data, soundings, all provided by the National Center of Weather Forecast of the NMA. Other type of information from the General Inspectorate for Emergency Situation (IGSU) or other ministries and media were also taken into consideration.

Keywords

• blizzard
• climatic risk
• North Atlantic Oscillation climatological and synoptic analyses
• socio-economical impacts