On the occurrence of freezing rain and ice pellets over the eastern Canadian Arctic

Characteristics of the raindrop size distribution for freezing precipitation observed in southern China

“…The depths were about 600 m for the melting layer and 2500 m for the lower refreezing layer. The maximum temperature and the depth of the melting layer herein are consistent with those found by Roberts and Stewart [2008] favorable for freezing rain over the eastern Canadian Arctic. But the later posses a smaller depth of the lower subfreezing layer owing to in the higher latitude.…”

“…But the later posses a smaller depth of the lower subfreezing layer owing to in the higher latitude. Actually, as documented by, the precipitation types reported at the surface are more sensitive to the melting characteristics than the lower subfreezing characteristics [ Zerr , 1997; Rauber et al , 2001; Roberts and Stewart , 2008]. Although the temperature of the entire air column was less than 0°C in the 0000 UTC vertical profiles, it is undoubtedly that a melting layer exists during the following 12 h according to the trend of temperature profiles.…”

“…Given the huge impacts of freezing precipitation, several studies have been conducted to investigate the climatology, understand the synoptic background and weather conditions, and develop the forecasting methods for freezing precipitation [e.g., Bocchieri , 1980; Zerr , 1997; Carrière et al , 2000; Bernstein , 2000; Rauber et al , 2000, 2001; Robbins and Cortinas , 2002; Cortinas et al , 2004; Wandishin et al , 2005; Houston and Changnon , 2007; Matsushita and Nishio , 2008; Roberts and Stewart , 2008; Zhou et al , 2009; Sun and Zhao , 2010]. To better understand the formation of winter precipitation types, Thériault and Stewart [2010] and Thériault et al [2006, 2010] used a one‐dimensional cloud model with a bulk microphysics to investigate the effect of environmental conditions on the evolution of winter precipitation types and the corresponding microphysical processes.…”

Storm Studies in the Arctic (STAR)

“…As low pressure systems move in from the west and south, they often intensify as they track east and north (e.g., Hudson et al 2001;Hoskins and Hodges 2002;Intihar and Stewart 2005). Some research has been devoted to this part of the Arctic, examining the general character of such storms and their precipitation features (e.g., Roberts et al 2008;Roberts and Stewart 2008); however, limited detailed field data have been available. The interaction of these low pressure systems with local topography is critical to understanding local and regional weather (see the "Project area, climatology, and instrumentation" section for a more detailed climatological discussion).…”

“…Freezing precipitation is relatively rare at Iqaluit compared to southern latitudes. Freezing precipitation occurs most frequently in spring (May) and autumn (October; Roberts and Stewart 2008). The wind direction most commonly associated with freezing precipitation in either season is from the southeast, although a secondary maximum of freezing precipitation occurs from the northwest.…”