Orographic Effect on the Precipitation with Typhoon Washi in the Mindanao Island of the Philippines

Abstract

We examined the orographic effect of Mindanao Island in the Philippines on the distribution of precipitation from Typhoon Washi. The National Centers for Environmental Protection (NCEP) and US Department of Energy (DOE) Reanalysis data were downscaled using a regional spectral model to reproduce the typhoon in detail. A heat budget analysis revealed the reason for the absence of precipitation over the mountain in the center of Mindanao Island. Sensitivity experiments with various artificial terrains were conducted to estimate the orographic effect on the precipitation distribution. The peak rainfall, which occurred on the west side of Mt. Ragang, was caused by the interaction between the typhoon and both Mt. Ragang and Mt. Malindang. A rich source of heat and moisture is indispensable for typhoon rainfall. However, without a mountain, a typhoon would not cause heavy precipitation even after trespassing. Divergence of the typhoon wind due to one or more mountains is shown to be the key factor behind the heavy rainfall over land from Typhoon Washi in 2011.(Citation: Minamide, M. and K. Yoshimura, 2014: Orographic effect on the precipitation with Typhoon Washi in the Mindanao

Tropical cyclone characteristics associated with extreme precipitation in the northern Philippines

“…To our best knowledge, no previous study has analysed the statistical relationship between TC intensity or movement speed and precipitation in Luzon. Previous studies of Philippine TCs focused on long‐term trends of TC activity (David et al ., 2013; Cinco et al ., 2016), impacts of the El Niño Southern Oscillation on inter‐annual variability in TC activity (Corporal‐Lodangco et al ., 2016), precipitation enhancement due to TCs interacting with the monsoon (Cayanan et al ., 2011; Bagtasa, 2019), the contribution of TC precipitation to total precipitation (Bagtasa, 2017) and case studies on the effect of topography on TC rainfall (Minamide and Yoshimura, 2014; Lagmay et al ., 2015; Racoma et al ., 2016).…”

Tropical cyclone effects enhance limnetic plankton trophic‐level relationships in a subtropical oligotrophic freshwater ecosystem

“…Notably, in this study, a moderate TC duration significantly weakened the plankton trophic‐level relationships at the surface depth, which might pose challenges for plankton to recover quickly. We thus speculated that the weak associations between plankton trophic‐level relationships and TC disturbance ranking in this study might be additionally caused by orographic effects, which mountain slopes that surround the FTR might modulate TC effects on the reservoir catchment (Lentink et al., 2018; Minamide & Yoshimura, 2014; Whitford & Duval, 2020). Moreover, TCs can promote trophic‐level relationships both through bottom‐up and top‐down controls in plankton communities (Byrnes et al., 2011; Chen et al., 2020; Hoover et al., 2006).…”

Historical Dynamical Downscaling for East Asia with the Atmosphere and Ocean Coupled Regional Model

“…Since the pioneering work of Giorgi and Bates (1989), the dynamical downscaling technique with high-resolution regional atmospheric models has been used for various purposes, including seasonal weather forecasts (e.g., Yoon et al 2012), identification of land-atmosphere interactions (e.g., DeHaan and Kanamitsu 2008), the orographic process of rainfall patterns (e.g., Leung and Ghan 1995), and behavior of typhoons (e.g., Minamide and Yoshimura 2014). In addition to these various purposes, dynamical downscaling is regarded as one of the most promising tools for regional climate projection.…”