Mobile Mesonet Observations on 3 May 1999

Diagnosing the Intercept Parameters of the Exponential Drop Size Distributions in a Single-Moment Microphysics Scheme and Impact on Supercell Storm Simulations

“…The maximum temperature deficit is 1.3 K (not shown), which is close to the maximum 470 temperature deficit of 0.7 K in MY2_orig, and is closer to the observed cold pool intensity 471 (Markowski 2002). The single-moment microphysics schemes, at least with their defaultintercept parameter values, tend to produce unrealistically strong cold pools.…”

“…MY2_orig was seen to be very weak in the forward flank region, which agrees with surface 582 mesonet observations from the event (Markowski 2002), hence improvements in the 583 representation of the forward flank region through diagnosing the intercept parameters of the 584 frozen species is encouraging. 585…”

“…May 3 rd indicate that the cold pools in the forward flank region of the storm for this event were 433 small and weak, with maximum temperature deficits of no more than 2-3 K (Markowski 2002). 434…”

Improved understanding of near-ground winds in hurricanes and tornadoes

“…Mesonet station data were recorded every two seconds. When deployed in the hook echo and/or RFD region of a supercellular storm, these data can provide essential thermodynamic and kinematic information on the environment near a tornado or tornadogenesis region (Markowski et al 2002;Grzych et al 2007;Hirth et al 2008).…”

“…Due to inaccuracies in the anemometry during significant vehicle accelerations, velocity data were removed in a similar manner as employed by Markowski et al (2002), Markowski (2002) and Grzych et al (2007). The mesonet datasets were also quality controlled for spurious meteorological readings and vehicle headings.…”