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The Rapid Evolution of Convection Approaching New York City and Long Island. Michael Charles and Brian A. Colle Institute for Terrestrial and Planetary Sciences SUNY at Stony Brook Secondary Author: Jeffrey Tongue NOAA/NWS Upton, NY.
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The Rapid Evolution of Convection Approaching New York City and Long Island Michael Charles and Brian A. Colle Institute for Terrestrial and Planetary Sciences SUNY at Stony Brook Secondary Author: Jeffrey Tongue NOAA/NWS Upton, NY
Probability of Detection (POD) in % – Warned events/total events(Svr tstm/torn.) ALY, BOX, OKX, and PHI Warnings from 1/1/1986 – 10/16/2003
False Alarm Rate (FAR) in % – Unverified warnings/total warnings (Svr tstm/torn.) ALY, BOX, OKX, and PHI Warnings from 1/1/1986 – 10/16/2003
Motivational Questions • What is the thunderstorm distribution over the coastal Northeast? • How do severe thunderstorms evolve as they approach the coast? • Does the evolution of severe convection change as the sea surface temperatures warm during the summer? • How well can mesoscale models forecast these convective events?
Outline • Climatology: • Severe thunderstorm/tornado reports. • Lightning climatology. • Results: • Results of lightning climatology. • Case study (18 May 2000): • Squall line evolution. • NWP model simulation of case study.
Severe thunderstorm/tornado reports per 100 km2 per 1 million peopleStorm reports from 1/1/1950 to 10/31/2002
CG Lightning Strike Data • National Lightning Detection Network (NLDN) • Global Atmospherics • CG lightning to represent convection over NE (similar to Wasula et al 2002) • June vs. August convection (2000-2002) • 5-7° C difference in sea-surface temp.
Sea Surface Temperatures 15 June 2000 15 August 2000
Case Study – 18 May 2000 Squall Line Total Storm Reports 18 May 2000 through 19 May 2000 • Total of 99 storm reports across southern New England • The only warned county that didn’t verify was Nassau county, LI. • The only damage report in Suffolk county LI was a downed tree.
.5° reflectivity loop – 20 UTC 18 May 2000 to 02 UTC 19 May 2000
Above: 21:36 UTC reflectivity indicating cross section. Top Right: Reflectivity cross section showing vertical storm structure. Right: Velocity cross section.
Left: 23:33 UTC reflectivity indicating cross section. Above: Cross section showing vertical storm structure.
18 May 2000 2100 UTC Soundings (9-hr Eta model forecast) KPOU (Poughkeepsie, NY) KOKX (Brookhaven, NY)
MM5 description • 36, 12, and 4 km domains. • Initialized with GFS at 0000 UTC 18 May 2000. • Ran 36/12 km MM5 with Grell convective parameterization, explicit only in 4 km domain.
Model Verification – Surface Temperature 1800 UTC 18 May 2000 Surface Analysis 4km MM5 (hr-18) – MSLP and T (°C)
Model Verification – Precipitation 1800 UTC 18 May 2000 Reflectivity Mosaic 12km SBU MM5 – MSLP and 1-hr precip.
Model Verification – Precipitation 2200 UTC 18 May 2000 Reflectivity 4km SBU MM5 – MSLP and 1-hr precip.
Future Work • Need to better understand the model difficulties in forecasting squall lines over the NE (MM5 rarely has them under weak to moderate CAPE; this is not an Oklahoma environment!!) • With a good simulation, one can diagnose three-dimensionally the rapid evolution of severe convection approaching the coast.
References • NLDN Details: • http://ghrc.msfc.nasa.gov/uso/readme/gai.html • Wasula, Alicia C., Bosart, Lance F., LaPenta, Kenneth D. 2002: The Influence of Terrain on the Severe Weather Distribution across Interior Eastern New York and Western New England. Weather and Forecasting: Vol. 17, No. 6, pp. 1277–1289.
Small-scale Interannual Variability June 2000 Density June 2001 Density June 2002 Density
Small-scale Interannual Variability August 2000 Density August 2001 Density August 2002 Density