A level 1 was issued for S-Portugal, SW-Spain and NW-Morocco, mainly for tornadoes, severe wind gusts and excessive rainfall.
Parts of Portugal and Spain
The past few days resembled a merry-go-round with the next feature of interest already approaching from the west. Due to the far southward displaced polar front jet, another upper wave/surface depression is in full progress and taps into tropical moisture. Again, this system features an extensive warm sector with SBCAPE in excess of 1000 J/kg possible due to the combination of a tropical LL air mass beneath a cooler, extratropical layer, bumping up mid-level lapse rates significantly. Forecast warm front progress in respect of timing and placement is a blend of EZMWF and GFS, both placing the front well inland, with EZWMF being more aggressive. The warm sector features high BL moisture with excessive rainfall possible along the warm front itself and next to the high theta-e tongue, affecting mainly the Strait of Gibraltar and eastwards. As the upper wave also approaches from the west, the unstable and uncapped warm sector experiences a prolonged period of lift, so scattered thunderstorms south of the warm front are forecast. High PWAT values point to excessive rainfall and hence a level 2 was introduced. Another reason for issuing a level 2 is the high, positive rainfall anomaly, measured by TRMM for the past few days over the Strait of Gibraltar and surrounding areas, so flooding problems could be more easily arise even when forecast rain amounts reside on the lower-end side of our level 2 criterion.
A larger level 1 covers the warm sector due to the augmented tornado risk as LL shear and DLS in this warm sector increase significantly. Next to the tornado risk, severe wind gusts accompany stronger storms, as winds at 850hPa increase to 20m/s.
Again, another strong baroclinic zone evolves over N-Spain although air mass north of this boundary is not as cold as in the past event. However, some MUCAPE is forecast all the way up to N-Spain where freezing rain and snow are possible, locally enhanced by stronger convection. Overall risk seems too low for now to go with a low probability thunderstorm area, but a very isolated event can't be ruled out north of the 15-% thunderstorm line..
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