Genoa low

This cold and moist air enters the Mediterranean basin, and is deflected by the high mountains of northwest Corsica, which divert the air mass to the northeast, triggering cool and wet Libeccio winds in response into the Ligurian Sea, which in turn hit the western Apennines located in the immediate vicinity of the sea.

Several factors that have special relevance in the development of depressions south of the Alps are: A complex interaction is established between the orography of Liguria and the contrast between the cold and humid air mass and the warmer water of the Ligurian Sea, the process ends with the formation of a low pressure area over the Ligurian Sea, just near the city of Genoa.

[1] The depressions bear rain, often intense, on the Ligurian coast and hills of Tuscany, due to orographic lift which affects the southern side of the Apennines.

A strong southwesterly flow in the upper atmosphere leads the lows to the northeast and north-northeast, ("Zugstrasse Vb" Van Bebber) towards the Vienna Basin.

[6] The warm and moist air masses cause prolonged and abundant precipitation during slow Meridional flow over the upper catchments of both the southern and northern European Watershed.

[6] Examples of flooding events which follow this pattern are: Due to the expected warming of the future climate it is predicted that the annuality of Vb-cyclones will decrease.