Numerical diagnosis of a heavy snowfall event in the center of the Iberian Peninsula

On 4 March 2011, an exceptionally heavy snowfall event affected the Madrid region on the central Iberian Peninsula. At altitudes of 1200 m, snowfall reached a record of 34 cm in 24 h and produced considerable damage and disruption to electricity distribution and transport systems. Maximum intensity precipitation was identified between 1600 and 1800 UTC. Associated precipitation was particularly intense in the Guadarrama Mountains (at the center of the Peninsula, near Madrid). is of Meteosat Second Generation (MSG) satellite images revealed a dark area, generated by a stratospheric intrusion originating in the Atlantic and reaching the Iberian Peninsula. We studied synoptic conditions and mesoscale factors involved in the event, using the Weather Research and Forecasting (WRF) model. This permitted analysis of the evolution of the dry intrusion caused by a tropopause fold, its movement, and frontogenesis-related mechanisms during its crossing of the Guadarrama Mountains. The blocking of a wet warm mass at altitude owing to a descent of the tropopause but mainly at low levels because of orographic effects, helped concentrate moisture and generate potential instability (PI). This was subsequently released in deep convection, owing to the formation of frontogenesis.