The storm called ‘Filomena’ is news throughout southern Europe due to the extraordinary snowstorm and record low temperatures that it has caused in recent days. The snowfall in the capital of Spain, for example, has been the third most intense since the 20th century, leaving spectacular images of the monuments of Madrid completely covered in snow, in addition to interrupting many transport services for people and food.
But what is the reason for this exceptional rainfall event? According to information provided by Meteored.com, Filomena originated in a low pressure system near Canada, which crossed much of the Atlantic to the southeast thanks to a jet stream. On Thursday, January 7, the storm began to spread its influence across the Iberian Peninsula.
“We are in a refrigerator”
We have consulted the air physicist José Miguel Viñas (@Divulgameteo), disseminator, meteorologist at Meteored and Agropopular and a regular contributor to Muy Interesante. According to Viñas, the key to why such a spectacular snowfall has occurred is in a mass of cold air from the Arctic, which remained in the peninsula practically without moving.
“Then the storm came across the Atlantic, leaving very intense rains in the Canary Islands and Costa del Sol, and began to inject a lot of moisture. Thus a perfect situation was created: very cold air and humidity, ”he explains.
“The extraordinary thing for me is that Filomena has not displaced cold air, but it has stayed. That is why we have a cold snap this week. Many times something similar happens: the snowfall ends, then it rains, and then cold days come, but the temperature tends to hit a high; in this case it has not been so. The storm is now moving towards the Mediterranean, where it has not snowed. But the whole interior has gotten cold. We are in a refrigerator ”.
A historic snowfall: the third most intense in more than a hundred years
The centimeters of snow accumulated on the ground are used to estimate how much snow has fallen in an area, which in turn allows a record of the heaviest snowfalls. “On Saturday I threw the archive and looked at what had happened in Madrid in the last decades, to see what the significant snowfalls had been. To make a ranking , the most intense snowfall was that of 1904, in which between 70 centimeters and 1 meter of snow fell. This time we have not reached that far. The objective data for this snowfall has been between 30 and 50 cm (if more has accumulated in some areas it is surely due to the wind); This snowfall would be similar to one that took place in February 1907, in which there was talk of between 20 and 50 cm. We can say that it is the third most intense snowfall since there has been a record in more than a hundred years ”.
“Later, there have been two very important snowfalls in March 1971, a little less intense, because the average thickness was 25 cm; and that of February 1973, with a layer of snow between 30 and 35 cm”, he concludes.
What relationship does Filomena have with climate change?
Many ‘clueless’ citizens on social networks delegitimize the consequences of climate change due to extreme cold events like this one. But for Viñas, this argument is easily dismantled: “In the data we continually see that there are areas of the Arctic 10 or 15 degrees above its normal temperature. The world is not cooling because there has been a historical snowfall,” he explains.
2020, in addition, was next to 2016 the warmest year ever recorded in the world.
In fact, it is possible that, precisely, climate change is accentuating extreme storms like this; however, it is not easy to relate them.
“Today, we do not have tools to establish a relationship between the two; it would be too simplistic. It is true that the climate is becoming more extreme, and it will be more and more so. Heat-related episodes will be more frequent and extreme; but there will also be some linked to the cold that will be extreme. However, Filomena is an independent phenomenon and it is not easy to relate it to climate change ”, determines Viñas.
“The only thing that can be directly related to climate change are heat waves, prolonged episodes of extreme heat; but not, for now, the episodes of rainfall, no matter how extraordinary, like Filomena ”.
