OCTAVIA BOGDAN, MARIA COŞCONEA
ABSTRACT. Windthrows in Romania. Case-studies. The present paper is a sequel to the study of blown-down trees in Romania published in the previous issue of Riscuri şi Catastrofe volume. The areas most affected by such wind-related phenomena occur in the Eastern Carpathians, basically in the north-east of Romania (the Counties of Suceava, Maramureş, Neamţ and Harghita), but also in Covasna and Braşov counties in the Carpathian Curvature area. Over the past three-four decades, as the climate has been warming up, the incidence of trees brought down has been increasing. Major such events occurred on September 23-24 and November 5/6, 1995 in the Curvature Carpathians; March 6-8, 2002 in the Obcinele Bucovinei (low mountain area); December 24-25, 2002 around Bucharest City and on June 2-4, 2009 on the Southern slopes of Meridional Carpathians. These catastrophic events, except the last two cases, caused great damage to the national economy and to the environment. In the present paper are analyzed the cases in the north-east of Eastern Carpathians considered the most favorable territory for such events namely: the blown-down trees from 12-16 VII 1969 and from 6-8 III 2002, which by its consequences had a catastrophic nature. An account is given of each case, e.g. location of the event and the causes generating it (synoptic, meteorological and local), mode of manifestation and consequences.
Key words: windthrows, blown-down trees, broken trees, Eastern Carpathians, Romania