Characteristics of downslope winds in the Liguria Region

Strong downslope windstorms often occur in the Liguria Region. This part of North-Western Italy is characterised by an almost continuous mountain range along its West-East axis consisting of Maritime Alps and Apennines, which separate the Padan Plain to the North from the Mediterranean Sea to the South. Along this mountain range many valleys occur, frequently perpendicular to the mountain range axis, where strong gap flows sometimes develop from the top of the mountains ridge to the sea. In the framework ofthe European projects "Wind and Ports" and "Wind, Ports, and Sea", an anemometric monitoring network made up of 15 (ultra)sonic anemometric stations and 2 LiDARs has been realised in the three main commercial ports of Liguria. Thanks to this network two investigations are herein carried out. First, the wind climatology and the main statistical parameters of one Liguria valley have been studied through the analysis of the measurements taken along a period of 4 years by the anemometer placed at its southern exit. Then, the main characteristics of two strong gap flows that occurred in two distinct valley of Liguria are examined. Both these studies focus, on the one hand, on the climatological and meteorological characterisation of the downslope wind events and, on the other hand, on their most relevant quantities that can affect wind engineering problems