Abstract

This paper examines the extratropical transition (ET) of Hurricane Floyd along the U.S. East Coast on 16–17 September 1999 using the fifth-generation Pennsylvania State University–NCAR Mesoscale Model (MM5) down to 1.33-km horizontal grid spacing. The 36-h MM5 simulation reproduced the basic features of the ET event such as the track of Floyd, the development of a deep and intense baroclinic zone along the coast and its associated precipitation evolution, and the tendency for the heavy (>30 cm) precipitation to fall in a relatively narrow (30–40 km wide) band just inland of the coast; however, the MM5 overpredicted the moderate (10–20 cm) precipitation amounts near the coast by 40%–50% as the horizontal grid spacing was reduced to 1.33 km.

The MM5 was used to diagnose the evolution of the enhanced baroclinic zone and associated heavy precipitation to the north of Floyd. A deep layer of deformation frontogenesis extended from the surface to 400 mb as a result of confluence between the southeasterlies to the northeast of Floyd at all levels and the inland northeasterlies and southwesterlies at low and midlevels, respectively. A combination of strong frontogenesis, moist symmetric instability below 800 mb, and slantwise neutrality aloft resulted in the narrow and intense band of precipitation just inland of the coast. A separate simulation without the Appalachians and coastal terrain had little effect on Floyd's wind and temperature evolution, and heavy precipitation (>30 cm) still developed just inland of the coast; therefore, terrain played a relatively minor role in the devastating flooding for this particular event over the Northeast.

Frontogenesis calculations revealed that the upper-level baroclinic zone over the northeast United States was enhanced by a horizontal gradient in midlevel latent heating between the heavy precipitation near the coast and the lighter precipitation farther inland. This was also verified by completing a simulation without latent heating, which resulted in much less baroclinicity and downstream ridging aloft. In addition, without latent heating, the central pressure of Floyd was 25 mb weaker than the full-physics (control) run, and the storm only slowly moved up the coast. Without evaporative effects from precipitation, the low-level front was 10%–20% weaker than the control, and Floyd's central pressure was about 4 mb weaker. Another simulation without surface heat fluxes resulted in a 4–5 mb weaker cyclone, and 20%–30% less precipitation shifted 100–150 km farther eastward than the control.

Abstract

This paper utilizes the fifth-generation Pennsylvania State University–National Center for Atmospheric Research (PSU–NCAR) mesoscale model (MM5) in a two-dimensional (2D) configuration at 4-km horizontal grid spacing in order to better understand the relationship between orographic precipitation and the height and width of a barrier, as well as the ambient flow, uniform moist static stability, and freezing level. The focus is on how these parameters affect the orographic precipitation by changing the circulation and microphysical structures over the barrier.

As the low-level flow becomes blocked for moist nondimensional mountain heights greater than 3.0, there is a rapid upstream shift in the precipitation maximum and a reduction in precipitation over the upper windward slope. For the terrain geometries used in this study (500 to 3500 m high and 25- to 50-km half-width), the maximum precipitation is a strong function of barrier slope for relatively weak upstream flow (U = 10 m s⁻¹). For moderate wind speeds (U = 20 m s⁻¹) and a freezing level of 750 mb, melting effects lower the freezing level more along the windward slope as the mountain half-width and height increases for barrier slopes greater than 0.03. As a result, a low (1000 m) and narrow (25-km half-width) barrier has a greater surface precipitation maximum than a high (2000 m) and wide (50-km half-width) mountain of equivalent slope since the smaller barrier has more efficient warm rain processes occurring along the windward slope. For wind speeds greater than 20 m s⁻¹, a wider and higher barrier has a greater precipitation maximum since it has a more extensive orographic cloud, while a narrower barrier has more precipitation advecting into the lee.

The precipitation distribution is highly dependent on how the terrain-induced gravity wave modifies the circulation aloft. Even in the unblocked flow regime, the precipitation builds upstream of the crest for winds greater than 20 m s⁻¹, since strong flow favors a large vertical wavelength of the mountain gravity wave, and therefore a deep layer of upward motion over the lower windward slope. Both a narrower barrier and weaker stability favor less tilt to the mountain wave, resulting in a more collapsed circulation above the crest and more precipitation spillover. Reverse shear above the crest favors low-level wave amplification and a windward shift in the precipitation, while forward shear favors a weaker mountain wave over the crest and more precipitation advection into the lee. Finally, a freezing level raised from 750 to 500 mb collapses the precipitation distribution over the windward slope with less leeside spillover, therefore the windward precipitation efficiency remains high (>90%) at strong (>20 m s⁻¹) wind speeds.

Abstract

This paper presents two-dimensional (2D) idealized simulations at 1-km grid spacing using the fifth-generation Pennsylvania State University–National Center for Atmospheric Research (PSU–NCAR) Mesoscale Model (MM5) in order to illustrate how a series of ridges along a broad windward slope can impact the precipitation distribution and simulated microphysics. The number of windward ridges for a 2000-m mountain of 50-km half-width is varied from 0 to 16 over a 150-km distance using different stratifications, freezing levels, uniform ambient flows, and ridge amplitudes.

A few (200–400 m) windward ridges can enhance the precipitation locally over each ridge crest by a factor of 2–3. Meanwhile, a series of 8–16 ridges that are 200–400 m in height can increase the net precipitation averaged over the windward slope by 10%–35%. This average precipitation enhancement is maximized when the ridge spacing is relatively small (<20 km), since there is less time for subsidence drying within the valleys and the mountain waves become more evanescent, which favors a simple upward and downward motion couplet over each ridge. In addition, small ridge spacing is shown to have a synergistic effect on precipitation over the lower windward slope, in which an upstream ridge helps increase the precipitation over the adjacent downwind ridge. There is little net precipitation enhancement by the ridges for small moist Froude numbers (Fr < 0.8), since flow blocking limits the flow up and over each ridge. For a series of narrow ridges (∼10 km wide), the largest precipitation enhancement for a 500-mb freezing level occurs over lower windward slope of the barrier through warm-rain processes. In contrast, a 1000-mb freezing level has the largest precipitation enhancement over the middle and upper portions of a barrier for a series of narrow (∼10 km wide) ridges given the horizontal advection of snow aloft.

Abstract

The synoptic evolution and mechanisms for the largest medium-range (72–120 h) along-track errors of tropical cyclones (TC) are investigated. The mean along-track errors (ATEs) of the 51-member European Centre for Medium-Range Weather Forecasts (ECMWF) ensemble are evaluated for 393 forecasts (85 TCs) during the 2008 to 2016 North Atlantic seasons. The 27 unique forecasts within the upper quintile of most negative ATEs (i.e., slow bias greater than 500 km by 72 h) are inherently fast-moving TCs that undergo extratropical transition as they recurve and interact with a 300-hPa upstream trough and a downstream ridge. Both the trough and ridge are underamplified by only 5–10 m ~60 h before the time of largest ATE. The height errors then grow rapidly due to underpredicted 300–200-hPa potential vorticity advection by both the nondivergent wind and the irrotational wind from the TC’s outflow. Both wind components are underpredicted and result in weak biases in the trough’s developing potential vorticity gradient and associated jet streak. The underamplification of the upstream trough is exacerbated by underpredicted 700-hPa cold advection extending from beneath the trough into the TC at 48–36 h before the largest ATE. Standardized differences are consistent with the mean errors and reveal that weaker divergent outflow is driven by underpredicted near-TC precipitation, which corresponds to underpredicted 700-hPa moisture fluxes near the TC at ~108 h before the largest ATE. The ensemble member ATEs at 72–120 h generally show little correlation with their ATEs before 36 h, suggesting that initial position uncertainty is not the primary source of ATE variability later in the forecast.

Abstract

The largest medium-range (72–120 h) cross-track errors (CTE) of tropical cyclone (TC) forecasts from the Global Ensemble Forecast System (GEFS) over the northern Atlantic Ocean are examined for the 2008–16 seasons. The 38 unique forecasts within the upper quartile of most negative CTEs (i.e., left-of-track bias larger than 250 km by 72 h) do not have a clear common source of steering error, although 12 of the forecasts involve the underprediction of a weak upper-level trough to the west of the TC by 36 h. Meanwhile, at least 18 of the 36 most positive CTEs (right-of-track bias) are associated with TCs embedded in the southwest extent of a subtropical ridge, the strength of which is increasingly underpredicted during the first 24 h of the forecast. Excessive height falls north of the TC are driven by overpredicted divergence aloft, which corresponds to overpredicted TC outer-core convection. The convection is triggered by a 5%–20% overprediction of near-TC moisture and instability in the initial conditions. Weather Research and Forecasting (WRF) Model simulations are run at 36-, 12-, and 4-km grid spacing for select right-of-track cases, using the GEFS for initial and lateral boundary conditions. The 36-km WRF reproduces the same growth of errors as the GEFS because of, in part, sharing the same stability and moisture errors in the initial conditions. Changes in the convective parameterization affect how quickly these errors grow by affecting how much convection spins up. The addition of a 4-km nest with no convective parameterization causes the errors to grow ~20% faster, resulting in an even larger right-of-track error.

Abstract

A technique for initializing realistic idealized extratropical cyclones for short-term (0–72 h) numerical simulations is described. The approach modifies select methods from two previous studies to provide more control over the initial cyclone structure. Additional features added to the technique include 1) deformation functions to initialize more realistic low-level fronts, tropopause structure, and enhanced jet maximum at upper levels; 2) a barotropic shear function to help develop different cyclone and frontal geometries; and 3) damping functions to create an isolated baroclinic wave in the horizontal; therefore, the initialized cyclone is not influenced by the domain boundaries for relatively short simulations. Since this procedure allows for control of the initialized cyclone structures, it may be useful for studies of frontal and cyclone interaction with topography and mesoscale predictability. The initialization system produces a variety of basic states and synoptic disturbances, ranging from weak to explosively developing cyclones. Examples are shown to provide some insight on how to adjust selected parameters. The output is compatible with the fifth-generation Pennsylvania State University–National Center for Atmospheric Research Mesoscale Model and the Weather Research and Forecasting model. This note describes the procedure as well as presents an example of a landfalling cyclone along the U.S. west coast with and without terrain.

Abstract

The modification of precipitation by the coastal land areas of Long Island (LI), New York, and southern Connecticut (CT) is examined for an extratropical cyclone over the northeast United States on 1 December 2004, which produced strong southerly flow (15–30 m s⁻¹) below 900 mb and heavy precipitation over LI. The differential surface roughness at the coast and the hills of LI (30–80 m) and southern CT (100–250 m) enhanced the surface precipitation by 30%–50% over these regions compared with the nearby water region of LI Sound. The three-dimensional precipitation structures are shown using composite Weather Surveillance Radar-1988 Doppler radar data interpolated to a Cartesian grid, which is compared with a 4-km simulation using the fifth-generation Pennsylvania State University–National Center for Atmospheric Research Mesoscale Model (MM5). As the low-level stratification and flow increased at low levels, the MM5 produced a terrain-forced gravity wave over LI and CT upward through 6 km MSL. Precipitation enhancement (2–3 dBZ) occurred from the surface upward to around the freezing level (3 km MSL) across central LI and southern CT, while there was a localized precipitation minimum over LI Sound. A factor separation on a few sensitivity MM5 runs was performed to isolate the impact of small hills and differential friction across the LI coastline. Both the hills and frictional effects have similar contributions to the total precipitation enhancement and the vertical circulations below 3 km. The hills of LI enhanced the gravity wave circulations slightly more than the differential friction above 3 km, while there was little flow and precipitation interaction between the hills and differential friction. A sensitivity simulation without an ice/snow cloud above 3 km MSL revealed that the seeder-feeder process enhanced surface precipitation by about a factor of 4.

Abstract

Northerly surges of cold air often move southward along the eastern side of the Rockies from southern Canada into Mexico. The strongest surges, which generally develop in midwinter, are associated with temperature decreases and pressure rises of 20°–30°C and 15–30 mb, respectively, within 24 h. Surges are usually accompanied by a meridionally elongated pressure ridge and strong low-level ageostrophic winds that parallel the terrain. The width of the pressure ridging is approximately 1000 km over the southern plains but decreases to only a few hundred kilometers when the surge enters Mexico.

This paper provides a detailed description of a northerly surge to the east of the Rocky Mountains that occurred on 12–14 November 1986. Using both observational and model data, the structural evolution of the surge is analyzed; in addition, the dynamics of the event is explored by diagnosing the momentum, thermodynamic energy, and vorticity equations. To determine the typical synoptic-scale evolution of these cold surges, a composite study is also presented. It is concluded that these cold surges result primarily from the interaction of the evolving synoptic-scale flow with the Rocky Mountains and the sloping topography of the Great Plains, and not from the generation of rotationally trapped waves such as Kelvin, shelf, and topographic Rossby waves. When an upper-level short-wave trough moves southeastward out of western Canada, northerlies, high pressure, and cold air spread southward into the northern plains at low levels. Lee troughing occurs to the east of the central and southern Rockies and, in concert with the ridging to the north, establishes an along-barrier pressure gradient that forces ageostrophic northerly flow and the meridional advection of cold air. Blocked upslope flow at the forward portion of the surge leads to large-scale damming. As the surge enters Mexico, where the topography becomes steeper and the large-scale slope is lost, the width of the damming is greatly reduced. Consistent with damming, momentum diagnostics over both the Great Plains and coastal Mexico indicate that an antitriptic balance exists parallel to the mountains, whereas a geostrophic balance exists normal to the barrier.

Abstract

Quasi-linear convective systems (QLCSs) crossing the Atlantic coastline over the northeastern United States were classified into three categories based on their evolution upon encountering the coast. Composite analyses show that convective lines that decay near the Atlantic coast or slowly decay over the coastal waters are associated with 900–800-hPa frontogenesis, with greater ambient 0–3-km vertical wind shear for the slowly decaying lines. Systems that maintain their intensity over the coastal ocean are associated with 900-hPa warm air advection, but with little low-level frontogenetical forcing. Neither sea surface temperature nor ambient instability was a clear delimiter between the three evolutions. Sustaining convective lines have the strongest environmental 0–3-km shear of the three types, and this shear increases as these systems approach the coast. In contrast, the low-level shear decreases as decaying and slowly decaying convective lines move toward the Atlantic coastline. There was also a weaker mean surface cold pool for the sustaining systems than the two types of decaying QLCSs, which may favor a more long-lived system if the horizontal vorticity from this cold pool is more balanced by low-level vertical shear.

Abstract

This paper explores the structural evolution and physical processes that explain the modification of two quasi-linear convective systems (QLCSs) that encountered the densely populated New York City–Atlantic coastal region. One QLCS on 31 May 2002 traversed the Atlantic coastal boundary with little change in its intensity, producing widespread severe wind damage across New York City and Long Island. During this event, warm air advection at 925 hPa helped destabilize the layer above this level over the coastal zone, while the marine boundary layer deepened below this level. The 0–3-km line-perpendicular vertical wind shear was relatively strong, which supported ascent along the leading edge of the diabatically generated cold pool. The surface-based convective system became slightly elevated as it moved over the marine waters. In contrast, the 23 July 2002 QLCS decayed upon encountering the Atlantic coastline, despite its coincidence with a surface cold front. The most unstable CAPE values during this decaying event were 400–800 J kg⁻¹ greater than the sustaining 31 May event, though the 0–3-km vertical wind shear was approximately half. Weaker shear likely contributed to limited ascent along the leading edge of the surface based cold pool, and ultimately the demise of the convective line. Sensitivity tests highlight the importance of the relationship between the cold pool and vertical shear during these two events, and illustrate the limited role of the marine layer in modifying the evolution of these two convective systems.