Granizo gigante en España, ¿fue el cambio climático?

Abstract

Large hailstorms remain Europe's primary severe weather threat, classified by size as large (5-7 cm), very large (7-9 cm), and giant (> 10 cm). Spain has recorded only 5 giant hail events, 3 in the last two years. A giant hailstorm hit Girona on August 30, 2022, with hail reaching a record 12 cm, causing significant damage and the first hail-related fatality in Europe in 20 years. The synoptic setup included a quasi-omega blocking pattern and a depression over France, inducing a short-wave trough in the northeastern Iberian Peninsula. This, along with a thermal low and Mediterranean marine heatwave, favored vorticity advection and moisture influx. The study attributes the giant hail event to anthropogenic climate change and a marine heatwave, analyzing it with the pseudo-global warming approach. The WRF-ARW model showed under preindustrial or non-heatwave conditions, the hail event would have been less severe. This method could help attribute such events to climate change.