Wintertime connections between extreme wind patterns in Spain and large-scale geopotential height field

The present study is focused on the study of the variability and the most significant wind speed patterns in Spain during the winter season analyzing as well connections between the wind speed field and the geopotential height at 1000 hPa over an Atlantic area. The daily wind speed variability is investigated by means of principal components using wind speed observations. Five main modes of variation, accounting 66% of the variance of the original data, have been identified, highlighting their differences in the Spanish wind speed behavior. Connections between the wind speeds and the large-scale atmospheric field were underlined by means of composite maps. Composite maps were built up to give an averaged atmospheric circulation associated with extreme wind speed variability in Spain. Moreover, the principal component analysis was also applied to the geopotential heights, providing relationships between the large-scale atmospheric modes and the observational local wind speeds. Such relationships are shown in terms of the cumulated frequency values of wind speed associated with the extreme scores of the obtained large-scale atmospheric modes, showing those large-scale atmospheric patterns more dominant in the wind field in Spain. (C) 2012 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.