Lect 20 W24
Lect 20 W24
WINTER 2024
TR 1:05-2:25pm
Department of Atmospheric and Oceanic Sciences (AOS)
Faculty of Science
[email protected]
LECTURE 20
• CONVECTIVE STORMS
Multicell storms
• Blizzards
So, the cold downdraft falls into the warm, buoyant air masses
that rise and form the updraft. This way the updraft is
eliminated.
When there is big supply of warm and humid air at low levels of the
atmosphere:
the more the shear the more long-lived the convective circulation and the
resulting storm.
In no shear conditions convective developments, and the resulting storms are
shallow and short-lived.
𝑧
RECAP
Line of thunderstorms (called a squall line) as seen by weather radar
𝑢𝑝𝑝𝑒𝑟 𝑙𝑒𝑣𝑒𝑙 N
𝑤𝑖𝑛𝑑
W E
S
𝑙𝑜𝑤 𝑙𝑒𝑣𝑒𝑙 𝑤𝑖𝑛𝑑
The squall may be a continuous line or may show breaks in between the individual
thunderstorm cells.
𝑾 𝑬
𝑾 𝑬
Cold pool and gust front in the low levels
𝑾 𝑬
𝑾 𝑬
2. The warm, moist air glides over the gust front and is lifted upwards .
𝑾 𝑬
3. Dry air is continuously drawn into the squall from the west.
Precipitation that forms in the cloud is falling into this dry air.
The falling precipitation evaporates into this dry air.
As the air is dry, evaporation is more rapid.
And so, the cooling of the inflowing air due to evaporation is more intense.
Focus on the middle and upper levels
𝑾 𝑬
4.
This way the air becomes very cold and very heavy.
It sinks, thus creating the powerful downdraft, and the gust front.
The powerful gust front will in turn help the warm humid inflow air
to rise.
Note, the cooperation (called a synergistic relation)
between the updraft and the downdraft in the case of the squall storm.
Mammatus
Cloud
Rain from Anvil
Anvil cloud
Shelf cloud
THE GUST FRONT
𝑾 𝑬
• The leading edge of the advancing low level, cold, downdraft air is the gust front.
𝑾 𝑬
A circular gust front propagating away from parent storm
Gust fronts that outrun the ‘parent’ squall-line can still provide uplift for warm and humid air-masses.
As these air masses rise, they condense their water vapour and the characteristic elongated type of
cloud is generated: the roll cloud.
ROLL CLOUDS
ARCUS CLOUDS
𝑾 𝑬
MULTICELL STORMS
Development of the SQUALL LINE BACKGROUND WIND SHEAR
(moderate, and
concentrated in the low levels)
𝑾 𝑬
𝑾 𝑬
𝑾 𝑬
We get a multi-cell
squall.
CROSS- SECTION of a multi-cell SQUALL LINE
Layered, stratiform
cloud Mature cell
Layered, stratiform
cloud Mature cell
N − 𝑆 𝑠𝑐𝑎𝑙𝑒: 400km
𝑾 𝑬
𝛿𝑥2 = 100 − 200km
In the East to West direction, we see on the radar several rows of thunderstorm cells.
Extent (scale) of the entire multi cell storm In the East to West direction can be up to
100 − 200𝑘𝑚
SQUALL LINE
PRECIPITATION and CLOUD TYPES
Mammatus
Cloud
MULTICELL SQUALL LINE
A B
So, the resulting gust front will have a tendency to move much faster
than in a squall storm made of a single cell.
The gust front will move from position A to position B.
STRONG BACKGROUND WIND SHEAR
1
2
3 4
A B
Once a cell has ‘moved’ rearwards and is located well above the cold
pool its access to rising warm air from the surface is blocked.
STRONG BACKGROUND WIND SHEAR
1
2
3 4
A B
Once a cell has moved rearwards and is located well above the cold pool its
access to rising warm air from the surface is blocked.
So an ‘old’ cell that is furthest from the leading edge will be dissipating
at the same time that a ‘young’ cell at the leading edge will be forming.
older cells MULTICELL STORM
younger cell
RADAR VIEW from ABOVE
old cell
young cell
MULTICELL STORM
RADAR PLAN VIEW
is a severe snow storm characterized by strong winds causing blowing snow and a result low visibility.
The term blizzard became common since it was used by the U.S. press to describe
snowstorms during the harsh winter of 1880–81
QUANTITATIVELY
To be a blizzard, a snow storm must have winds that are greater than or equal to 35 𝑘𝑡𝑠 𝑚𝑝ℎ
and
the blowing reduces visibility to less than 400𝑚 for a period of time of more than 3ℎ𝑟𝑠.
What makes the blizzard stand out from a typical snowstorm is the is the strength of the
wind.
A recent blizzard : Eastern Newfoundland 18 January 2019
https://twitter.com/i/status/1218513604393213953
Well known are the blizzards of ANTARCTICA
is considered the most severe winter ever known in the United States and is known
for the frequency of blizzard and the deep cold that lasted several months. The snow
arrived in October 1880 and blizzard followed blizzard throughout the winter and into
March 1881.
Showing a low pressure system with its warm and cold fronts
We learned that the way the wind blows is determined (90% of the
time) by the geostrophic balance that is a balance of 2 forces the PGF
and the CF.
LOW pressure
PGF
CF
HIGH pressure
And eventually this gives a flow that is parallel to the isobars, with the high pressure on
the right in the Northern hemisphere and proportional in strength to the pressure
gradient.
LOW pressure
𝑉𝑔
HIGH pressure
However, for a moving airmass there is another force
that comes into play, the force of friction.
LOW
PGF
𝑉
FR CF
HIGH
Wind 𝑉
FR Wind 𝑉
We consider that FR is so strong near the surface of the Earth
that the moving air-mass is under the effect of FR as well as of
the PGF and the CF forces.
For the flow to be steady, we need that these three forces balance out
PGF + CF + FR = 0
The lay-out of the three forces in order for them to balance out is as shown
below
LOW
PGF
𝑉
FR CF
HIGH
LOW 𝑝
PGF
𝑉
FR CF
HIGH 𝑝
So, this wind, that is the result of the 3-force balance is called subgeostrophic.
IN THE CASE OF A LOW-PRESSURE SYSTEM
(NORTHERN HEMISPHERE)
( NORTHERN HEMISPHERE)
IN THE CASE OF A HIGH-PRESSURE SYSTEM (NORTHERN HEMISPHERE)
1008ℎ𝑃𝑎
FR
1020ℎ𝑃𝑎
1020ℎ𝑃𝑎 H
H
CF PGF
SO, the WIND AROUND THE HIGH PRESSURE CENTRE:
1008ℎ𝑃𝑎 1008ℎ𝑃𝑎
1020ℎ𝑃𝑎 1020ℎ𝑃𝑎
H H
Black arrows show the geostrophic wind. Wind blows clockwise and
It blows in the clockwise sense and diverging away from the
parallel to the isobars centre of High pressure.
NEAR THE EARTH’S SURFACE where the frictional drag is
significant
over time
Air mass is moving towards the low pressure centre → build-up of air mass at the centre of the low-pressure system.
less air mass will be left at the centre of the high pressure system.
So, the pressure at the centre will gradually decrease.
we say that the high-pressure center will weaken.
So, the three-force balance implies that low and high-pressure
systems near the surface of the Earth will weaken with time and
therefore will be short-lived structures.
However, this is not what happens !
A longer lifetime is possible if some other process removes the air masses that tend
to pile up at the centre of the system due to the converging winds.
If the air masses are moved away from the centre, the low-pressure system will not
fill and can persist for a long time.