The atmospheric circulation can be recognized as one of the causes of severe rainfall events occurrence. Such events, especially when are characterized by short durations and high intensities, result in flood events in the Mediterranean area. It is very important to understand how these heavy rainfall events, which can be usually identified with convective rainfall, are related to the different types of atmospheric circulation. In order to do this, some weather circulation patterns (WPs), which have been derived for the Europe, have been first connected with the rainfall annual maxima (AMAX) recorded over the Sicily. The analyses allowed to identify those WPs that are more likely to result into the occurrence of the AMAX. Secondly, two ERA-Interim reanalysis indexes have been used to define a criterion to distinguish those AMAX mainly due to a convective component from those more related to a stratiform precipitation, also detecting a transient zone between these two types of events. Finally, the main results have been connected together with the aim to define a set of triggering factors of extreme rainfall events.

大气环流可以被认为是严重降雨事件发生的原因之一。此类事件，特别是持续时间短且强度高的事件，导致地中海地区发生洪水事件。了解这些通常通过对流降雨识别的强降雨事件与不同类型的大气环流之间的关系非常重要。为此，首先将源自欧洲的一些天气环流模式（WPs）与西西里岛上记录的年降雨量最大值（AMAX）联系起来。通过分析，可以识别出更可能导致AMAX发生的那些WP。其次，已使用两个ERA-Interim重新分析指标来定义一个标准，以区分那些主要由对流分量引起的AMAX与与层状降水更相关的那些，同时还检测这两种类型事件之间的过渡带。最后，将主要结果联系在一起，目的是定义一组极端降雨事件的触发因素。