Development of the water budget for three extra-tropical cyclones with intense rainfall over Europe

Three cyclones developing between 28 August and 6 September 1995 were studi ed with respect to the temporal evolution of their water budget components. The cyclones were simulated with the regional model REMO. Water budget val ues were determined from hourly model output for circle areas with 500 km r adius around the pressure minimum. The results show a maximum liquid water path of about 0.12 kgm(-2) and a maximum ice water path of 0.16 kgm(-2). In the vertical cloud structure the medium cloud layer disappears at the end of the life cycle for all three cyclones. The release of precipitation onto the Baltic Sea drainage basin is different for each cyclone. It lies betwe en 13 and 22 . 10(12) kg. This is about 50% of the total precipitation in t he whole area for the strongest cyclone and 65% for the others. The P-E (pr ecipitation minus evaporation) is 15 . 10(12) kg for two of the cyclones an d 10 . 10(12) kg for the third one.