Severe sea storms along Italian coasts

An analysis of 82 severe sea storms which affected the coasts of Italian Peninsula from 1990 up to 2001, documented by systematic observations carried out by a buoy national network, is performed with the aim to identify the main features of meteorological fields and to describe their development. For each of the 82 cases a standardised minimum documentation is collected, consisting of both 1000 hPa maps and surface wind speed fields covering the whole Mediterranean area. Storms are then classified according to the location of the low pressure centre, by means of a k-means cluster analysis. Thereafter the time development of representative events of each cluster is investigated considering time sequences of various fields starting from the early stage of the storms. The boundary layer structure in areas of wave generation is finally considered (vertical wind-shear, static stability, Richardson number). Concluding remarks are referred to the peculiar meteorological features of Mediterranean sea storms.