Mesoscale Vortices over the Great Lakes in Wintertime

Forbes, Gregory S.; Merritt, Jonathan H.

doi:10.1175/1520-0493(1984)112<0377:mvotgl>2.0.co;2

Cited by 57 publications

(43 citation statements)

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“…It forms when cold air flows over the relatively warm lakes and can result in significant amounts of snow (e.g., Rothrock 1969;Niziol 1987;Hjelmfelt 1990). The resulting mesoscale bands of clouds and snow have been categorized into several distinct morphologies (e.g., Braham and Kelly 1982;Forbes and Merritt 1984;Hjelmfelt 1990;Niziol et al 1995;Laird et al 2003), the most frequent of which is widespread convection, often in the form of wind-parallel bands (Kelly 1986;Kristovich and Steve 1995;Rodriguez et al 2007). Similar snow-producing systems generated by cold airflow over relatively warm bodies of water have been observed over such water bodies as the Sea of Japan (e.g., Yamamoto and Hirose 2009;Fujiyoshi et al 1995Fujiyoshi et al , 1998, the East China Sea (e.g., Agee and Howley 1977), the Baltic Sea (e.g., Andersson and Gustafsson 1994), Lake Victoria (e.g., Anyah et al 2006), and smaller lakes in North America (e.g., Schultz et al 2004;Laird et al 2009Laird et al , 2010.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 96%

Observations of the Cross-Lake Cloud and Snow Evolution in a Lake-Effect Snow Event

Barthold

Kristovich

2011

Monthly Weather Review

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While the total snowfall produced in lake-effect storms can be considerable, little is known about how clouds and snow evolve within lake-effect boundary layers. Data collected over Lake Michigan on 10 January 1998 during the Lake-Induced Convection Experiment (Lake-ICE) are analyzed to better understand and quantify the evolution of clouds and snow. On this date, relatively cold air flowed from west to east across Lake Michigan, creating a quasi-steady-state boundary layer that increased from '675 to '910 m in depth over a distance of 80 km. Once a cloud deck formed 14-18 km from the upwind shoreline, maximum cloud particle concentrations and liquid water content increased from west to east across the lake. Correspondingly, maximum ice water contents, snowfall rates, and maximum snow particle diameters also increased across the lake. Maximum particle concentrations were found below the mean top of the boundary layer and above the cloud base for both cloud and snow particles.Surprisingly, snow particles were observed 3-7 km upwind of the upwind edge of the lake-effect cloud deck. These snow particles were observed to be rather spatially uniform throughout the boundary layer. Based on available observations, it is hypothesized that of the mechanisms that could produce this snow, the majority of it originated from transient clouds located near the upwind shore. In addition, maximum snow particle concentrations peaked near the middle of the lake before decreasing toward the downwind shore, indicating the location after which aggregation became an important snow growth mechanism. These results show that the evolution of clouds and snow within lake-effect boundary layers may not occur in the uniform manner often depicted in conceptual models.

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Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 96%

Observations of the Cross-Lake Cloud and Snow Evolution in a Lake-Effect Snow Event

Barthold

Kristovich

2011

Monthly Weather Review

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“…These studies have focused on the temporal and spatial variations of lake-effect snowfall (Jiusto and Kaplan 1972;Braham and Dungey 1984;Kelly 1986;Norton and Bolsenga 1993;Kunkel et al 2002;Burnett et al 2003;Kristovich and Spinar 2005); the frequency, conditions, and mesoscale structure of single or multiple lake events (Forbes and Merritt 1984;Kristovich and Steve 1995;Weiss and Sousounis 1999;Rodriguez et al 2007); and the occurrence of thundersnow (Schultz 1999). Few studies have conducted lake-effect climatological analyses for lakes smaller than the Great Lakes.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Climatology of Lake-Effect Precipitation Events over Lake Champlain

Laird

Desrochers

Payer

2009

Journal of Applied Meteorology and Climatology

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This study provides the first long-term climatological analysis of lake-effect precipitation events that developed in relation to a small lake (having a surface area of #1500 km 2 ). The frequency and environmental conditions favorable for Lake Champlain lake-effect precipitation were examined for the nine winters (October-March) from 1997/98 through 2005/06. Weather Surveillance Radar-1988 Doppler (WSR-88D) data from Burlington, Vermont, were used to identify 67 lake-effect events. Events occurred as 1) well-defined, isolated lake-effect bands over and downwind of the lake, independent of larger-scale precipitating systems (LC events), 2) quasi-stationary lake-effect bands over the lake embedded within extensive regional precipitation from a synoptic weather system (SYNOP events), or 3) a transition from SYNOP and LC lakeeffect precipitation. The LC events were found to occur under either a northerly or a southerly wind regime. An examination of the characteristics of these lake-effect events provides several unique findings that are useful for comparison with known lake-effect environments for larger lakes. January was the most active month with an average of nearly four lake-effect events per winter, and approximately one of every four LC events occurred with southerly winds. Event initiation and dissipation occurred on a diurnal time scale with an average duration of 12.1 h. In general, Lake Champlain lake-effect events 1) typically yielded snowfall, with surface air temperatures rarely above 08C, 2) frequently had an overlake mesolow present with a sea level pressure departure of 3-5 hPa, 3) occurred in a very stable environment with a surface inversion frequently present outside the Lake Champlain Valley, and 4) averaged a surface lake-air temperature difference of 14.48C and a lake-850-hPa temperature difference of 18.28C. Lake Champlain lake-effect events occur within a limited range of wind and temperature conditions, thus providing events that are more sensitive to small changes in environmental conditions than are large-lake lake-effect events and offering a more responsive system for subsequent investigation of connections between mesoscale processes and climate variability.

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“…Recently, Hjelmfelt (1990) numerically simulated lake-effect storms near Lake Michigan for a variety of wind conditions. He was able to produce the four different types that Forbes and Merritt (1984) identified earlier. His study demonstrated the significant effects that atmospheric stability, lake-land surface roughness difference, lake-air temperature difference, wind direction and wind speed have on lake-effect storms.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

A numerical investigation of wind speed effects on lake-effect storms

Sousounis

1993

Boundary-Layer Meteorol

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Abstract. Observations of lake-effect storms that occur over the Great Lakes region during late autumn and winter indicate a high sensitivity to ambient wind speed and direction. In this paper, a twodimensional version of the Penn State University/National Center for Atmospheric Research (PSU/ NCAR) model is used to investigate the wind speed effects on lake-effect snowstorms that occur over the Great Lakes region.Theoretical initial conditions for stability, relative humidity, wind velocity, and lake/land temperature distribution are specified. Nine different experiments are performed using wind speeds of U = 0, 2, 4,..., 16 m s -1. The perturbation wind, temperature, and moisture fields for each experiment after 36 h of simulation are compared.It is determined that moderate (4-6m s -1) wind speeds result in maximum precipitation (snowfall) on the lee shore of the model lake. Weak wind speeds (0 ~< U < 4 m s 1) yield significantly higher snowfall amounts over the lake along with a spatially concentrated and intense response. Strong wind speeds (6 < U ~< 16 m s -1) yield very little, if any, significant snowfall, although significant increases in cloudiness, temperature, and perturbation wind speed occur hundreds of kilometers downwind from the lake.

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Mesoscale Vortices over the Great Lakes in Wintertime

Cited by 57 publications

References 0 publications

Observations of the Cross-Lake Cloud and Snow Evolution in a Lake-Effect Snow Event

Observations of the Cross-Lake Cloud and Snow Evolution in a Lake-Effect Snow Event

Climatology of Lake-Effect Precipitation Events over Lake Champlain

A numerical investigation of wind speed effects on lake-effect storms

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