A Geographic Information Systems–Based Analysis of Supercells across Oklahoma from 1994 to 2003

Hocker, James E.; Basara, Jeffrey B.

doi:10.1175/2007jamc1673.1

Cited by 24 publications

(19 citation statements)

References 26 publications

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“…2i) supported strong updraft rotation. The combination of strong instability, pronounced shear, and a significant inversion implies that the Binger storm was unusually strong and persistent compared against a large sample of severe storms in environments typically characterized by only significant shear and instability (e.g., Brooks et al 1994;Graziano and Carlson 1987;Bunkers et al 2006b;Hocker and Basara 2008).…”

Section: Mesoscale Environment and Initiation Of The Binger Stormmentioning

confidence: 99%

The Impact of Spatial Variations of Low-Level Stability on the Life Cycle of a Simulated Supercell Storm

Ziegler

Mansell

Straka

et al. 2010

Monthly Weather Review

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This study reports on the dynamical evolution of simulated, long-lived right-moving supercell storms in a high-CAPE, strongly sheared mesoscale environment, which initiate in a weakly capped region and subsequently move into a cold boundary layer (BL) and inversion region before dissipating. The storm simulations realistically approximate the main morphological features and evolution of the 22 May 1981 Binger, Oklahoma, supercell storm by employing time-varying inflow lateral boundary conditions for the storm-relative moving grid, which in turn are prescribed from a parent, fixed steady-state mesoscale analysis to approximate the observed inversion region to the east of the dryline on that day. A series of full life cycle storm simulations have been performed in which the magnitude of boundary layer coldness and the convective inhibition are varied to examine the ability of the storm to regenerate and sustain its main updraft as it moves into environments with increasing convective stability. The analysis of the simulations employs an empirical expression for the theoretical speed of the rightforward-flank outflow boundary relative to the ambient, low-level storm inflow that is consistent with simulated cold-pool boundary movement. The theoretical outflow boundary speed in the direction opposite to the ambient flow increases with an increasing cold-pool temperature deficit relative to the ambient BL temperature, and it decreases as ambient wind speed increases. The right-moving, classic (CL) phase of the simulated supercells is supported by increasing precipitation content and a stronger cold pool, which increases the right-moving coldpool boundary speed against the constant ambient BL winds. The subsequent decrease of the ambient BL temperature with eastward storm movement decreases the cold-pool temperature deficit and reduces the outflow boundary speed against the ambient winds, progressing through a state of stagnation to an ultimate retrogression of the outflow boundary in the direction of the ambient flow. Onset of a transient, left-moving lowprecipitation (LP) phase is initiated as the storm redevelops on the retrograding outflow boundary. The leftmoving LP storm induces compensating downward motions in the inversion layer that desiccates the inflow, elevates the cloudy updraft parcel level of free convection (LFC), and leads to the final storm decay. The results demonstrate that inversion-region simulations support isolated, long-lived supercells. Both the degree of stratification and the coldness of the ambient BL regulate the cold-pool intensity and the strength and capacity of the outflow boundary to lift BL air through the LFC and thus regenerate convection, resulting in variation of supercell duration in the inversion region of approximately 1-2 h. In contrast, horizontally homogeneous conditions lacking an inversion region result in the development of secondary convection from the initial isolated supercell, followed by rapid upscale growth after 3 h to form a long-lived mesoscale convective system.

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Section: Mesoscale Environment and Initiation Of The Binger Stormmentioning

confidence: 99%

The Impact of Spatial Variations of Low-Level Stability on the Life Cycle of a Simulated Supercell Storm

Ziegler

Mansell

Straka

et al. 2010

Monthly Weather Review

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“…Its maximum storm size and footprint are below average but its precipitation per cell was 2.2 mm. Interestingly, both 1997 and 1998 were years with below average numbers of supercells across the state of Oklahoma [ Hocker and Basara , 2008]. The year 1999 had the most storms of any in the database but the average storm size and footprint were relatively low.…”

Section: Precipitationmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…One of the challenges of this data set is its vast size and the need to process it in a timely fashion. Hocker and Basara [2007, 2008] recently studied squall lines and supercell storms using Geographic Information Systems (GIS). They were concerned with the numbers and spatial distribution of the storms rather than storm precipitation and relied almost exclusively on raw radar reflectivity data.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Characteristics of warm season precipitating storms in the Arkansas–Red River basin

Tucker

2009

J. Geophys. Res.

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[1] Analysis of a multisensor precipitation product enables us to extract the precipitation from individual storms in the Arkansas-Red River drainage basin over a period of 11 years. We examine the year-to-year and intraseasonal variations of storm numbers, duration, sizes, and precipitation in the data set. Intraseasonal variations in numbers of storms exceed their year-to-year variations. More mountainous regions had greater numbers of storms than flatter regions. Most storms are small, last less than 2 h, and produce modest amounts of precipitation. The maximum size of storms and the number of storms are negatively correlated on a yearly basis. Midsummer months had a greater percentage of smaller storms but the storms were of longer average duration. We can roughly divide the storms into three different types, single ordinary cell storms, multiple storms (includes supercells), and mesoscale convective systems, and look at their year to year and intraseasonal variability in the data set. The most storms occur around 1700 local time but the most precipitation falls around 0100 local time. Storm duration was the most important factor determining how much precipitation storms generate per cell. We do not find that drought years or years with abundant precipitation had any particular characteristics but occur as a result of simultaneous occurrence of several features.

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“…Meteorologists have great interest in the climatology of thunderstorms across the world because severe thunderstorms could cause heavy rain, large hail, lightning strikes, and strong winds, which can potentially damage lives and property [1,2]. Weather monitoring systems, such as the Doppler radar, collect data with increasing spatial and temporal resolutions and provide great opportunities for researchers to study convective weather events [3,4].…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Life Cycle Characteristics of Warm-Season Severe Thunderstorms in Central United States from 2010 to 2014

Liu

2016

Climate

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Abstract:Weather monitoring systems, such as Doppler radars, collect a high volume of measurements with fine spatial and temporal resolutions that provide opportunities to study many convective weather events. This study examines the spatial and temporal characteristics of severe thunderstorm life cycles in central United States mainly covering Kansas, Oklahoma, and northern Texas during the warm seasons from 2010 to 2014. Thunderstorms are identified using radar reflectivity and cloud-to-ground lightning data and are tracked using a directed graph model that can represent the whole life cycle of a thunderstorm. Thunderstorms were stored in a GIS database with a number of additional thunderstorm attributes. Spatial and temporal characteristics of the thunderstorms were analyzed, including the yearly total number of thunderstorms, their monthly distribution, durations, initiation time, termination time, movement speed and direction, and the spatial distributions of thunderstorm tracks, initiations, and terminations. Results revealed that thunderstorms were most frequent across the eastern part of the study area, especially at the borders between Kansas, Missouri, Oklahoma, and Arkansas. Finally, thunderstorm occurrence is linked to land cover, including a comparison of thunderstorms between urban and surrounding rural areas. Results demonstrated that thunderstorms would favor forests and urban areas. This study demonstrates that advanced GIS representations and analyses for spatiotemporal events provide effective research tools to meteorological studies.

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A Geographic Information Systems–Based Analysis of Supercells across Oklahoma from 1994 to 2003

Cited by 24 publications

References 26 publications

The Impact of Spatial Variations of Low-Level Stability on the Life Cycle of a Simulated Supercell Storm

The Impact of Spatial Variations of Low-Level Stability on the Life Cycle of a Simulated Supercell Storm

Characteristics of warm season precipitating storms in the Arkansas–Red River basin

Life Cycle Characteristics of Warm-Season Severe Thunderstorms in Central United States from 2010 to 2014

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