Synoptic analysis of the January 2004 snowstorm: Example of Çanakkale

Year 2023, Volume: 8 Issue: 1, 11 - 18, 15.02.2023

Zahide Acar , Mahmut Eşsiz

https://doi.org/10.26833/ijeg.988115

Cited By: 2

Abstract

Many natural disasters have occurred on the Earth we live in. Humans have always been in a struggle with these natural phenomena. Today, people are still struggling with atmospheric extreme events. One of the most important disasters like this is snowstorms that occur suddenly in winter. Especially countries in the middle belt (30-60 latitudes in the Northern Hemisphere) are constantly affected by snowstorms. Turkey, located in the Middle Belt, is also exposed to these storms during the winter season. From this perspective, the analysis of synoptic conditions and weather forecast is an important factor for risk analysis and take precautions for winter storms. Thus, the predictions made with the tracking of air masses and synoptic analysis make it easier to understand how the storm occurred. For this purpose, synoptic analyses were conducted to understand the development of the snowstorm that occurred in the high atmosphere in Çanakkale on January 20-30, 2004. This study examined how weather conditions change. Radiosonde data, surface maps, and daily bulletins provided from the Turkish State Meteorological Service were used in the study. Archival data were used to track air mass orbits using the Hysplit trajectory method. Stability and instability assessments of air masses were evaluated using the data from radiosonde stations using the K Index. Spatial analysis software was used to analyze the data and show the thematic distribution of topography. According to the findings, during the passage of a cold front of air masses coming from the north to Çanakkale on January 22, gusty winds began, suddenly dropped the temperatures, and began heavy snow events. Later, it turned into a blizzard and formed a type of snow.

Keywords

Radiosonde, Snowstorm, Synoptic Analysis

References

• Barry, R. G., & Carleton, A. M. (2001). Synoptic and Dynamic Climatology. Boca Raton: Taylor & Francis.
• Şensoy, S. (2004). On the Flood Forecasting at the Bulgarian Part of. Ohrid, FY Republic of Macedonia, 1–10.
• Gönençgil, B. (2008). Doğal süreçler açısından iklim değişikliği ve insan. İstanbul: Çantay Yayınevi.
• Yılmaz, E., & Çiçek, İhsan. (2016). Thornthwaite climate classification of Turkey, Journal of Human Sciences, 13(3), 3973–3994.
• Yılmaz, E., & Çiçek, İhsan. (2018). Detailed Köppen-Geiger climate regions of Turkey<p>Türkiye’nin detaylandırılmış Köppen-Geiger iklim bölgeleri. Journal of Human Sciences, 15(1), 225–242.
• Acar Deniz, Z. Gönençgil, B., & Korucu Gümüşoğlu, N. (2017). Long-Term Changes in Hot and Cold Extremes in Turkey. Istanbul University Journal of Geography, 37, 57-67.
• Acar Deniz, Z., & Gönençgil B. (2019). Extreme precipitation events in Turkey. Meteorological Journal, 2(22), 87-94.
• Koç, T., (2001). Climate and Environment in Northwest Anatolia with Synoptic, Statistics and Application Dimensions. Istanbul: Çantay Bookstore.
• Goree, P.A. & Younkin, R.S. (1966). Synoptic climatology of heavy snowfall over the central and eastern United States, Montly Weather Review, 94(11), 663-668.
• Suriano, Z, & Leathers, D. J. (2017). Synoptic climatology of lake-effect snowfall conditions in the eastern Great Lakes region: synoptic climatology of lake-effect snowfall conditions. International Journal of Climatology, 37, 37: 4377-4389.
• Mote, T., Gamble, D.W., Underwood, S.J., Bentley, M.L. (1997). Synoptic-Scale Features Common to Heavy Snowstorms in the Southeast United States, Weather and Forecasting, 12(1), 5-23.
• Topuz, M., & Karabulut, M. (2016). Interrelation of Extreme Climatic Events with Air Masses in Antakya (Hatay, Turkey). International Journal of Humanities and Social Science Invention, 12;61-73.
• Galanaki, E., Lagouvardos, K., Kotroni, V., Flaounas, E., & Argiriou, A. (2018). Thunderstorm climatology in the Mediterranean using cloud-to-ground lightning observations. Atmospheric Research, 207, 136–144.
• Kurtulus, Y. F., & Acar, Z. (2021). Interannual variability of stormy day over Turkey. Journal of Geography, 42, 19-31.
• Acar, Z , Gönençgil, B. (2022) Investigation of Extreme Precipitation indices in Turkey. Theorical and Applied Climatology, 147 (3-4). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00704-022-03971-3.
• http://weather.uwyo.edu /upperair/sounding.html
• https://meteologix.com/tr/reanalysis/ecmwf-era5
• Britannica, T. Editors of Encyclopaedia (2020, March 28). wind. Encyclopedia Britannica. https://www.britannica.com/science/wind.
• https://meteologix.com/tr/reanalysis/ecmwfera5/turkey/wind-mean-direction/20171113-1800z.html
• https://www.meteociel.fr/modeles /archives/archives.php?day=13
• https://www.ready.noaa.gov/ hypub-bin/trajasrc.pl
• George, J.J. (1960). Weather Forecasting for Aeronautics. Academic Press, 410-415.
• Stutevant, J.S. (1995). The Severe Local Storm Forecasting, Weather Scratch Meteorological Services; 1st edition. 978-096050408200.
• Erinç, S. (1996). Klimatoloji ve Metodları, Alfa Yayınevi. İstanbul.
• Erol, O. (1999). Genel klimatoloji (5. bs). İstanbul Üniversitesi yayınları no: Vol. 9. İstanbul: Çetinkaya Kitabevi.
• Koçman, A. (1993). Türkiye İklimi, Ege Üniversitesi Edebiyat Fakültesi Yayınları: 72. İzmir.
• http://weather.uwyo.edu/upperair
• Flocas, H. A., Karacostas, Th. (2007). Cyclogenesis over the Aegean Sea: Identification and synoptic categories, Meteorological Applications, 3(1), 53-61.