Reconstruction of heavy rainfall events on the southern part of the AlpineRegion from 1868 to the end of the 19th century

The southern part of the Alpine Region is an area where heavy rainfall even ts are rather frequent and where many disastrous floods have been reported in the last 100/150 years. Within this context the purpose of the paper is both to show that the data available at the present allow for this area rat her detailed reconstruction of meteorological scenarios of heavy rainfall e vents just starting from 1865 and to discuss 12 episodes of the period 1865 -1899, corresponding with flooding over wide areas of the Po Basin. (C) 199 9 Elsevier Science Ltd. All rights reserved.