Heavy Precipitation Events in the Western Mediterranean Area: Physical Processes and Predictability

Heavy precipitation events (HPE) in the western Mediterranean often lead to large impacts. Especially in late summer and autumn, rainfall systems can be fed efficiently by warm and moist air. Due to complex interactions of various lifting mechanisms and the coastal orography, the initiation and development of the HPEs is not fully understood. Even more, the accurate prediction of the HPEs remains challenging. The improvement of the predictability of those events is a main subject of this thesis.