Meteorology Commons^™

Synoptic-Scale Environments Conducive To Orographic Impacts On Cold-Season Surface Wind Regimes At Montreal, Quebec, Alissa Razy, Shawn M. Milrad, Eyad H, Atallah, John R. Gyakum

Shawn M. Milrad

Orographic wind channeling, defined as dynamically and thermally induced processes that force wind to blow along the axis of a valley, is a common occurrence along the St. Lawrence River Valley (SLRV) in Quebec, Canada, and produces substantial observed weather impacts at stations along the valley, including Montreal (CYUL). Cold-season observed north-northeast (n = 55) and south-southeast (n = 16) surface wind events at CYUL are identified from 1979 to 2002. The authors partition the north-northeast wind events into four groups using manual synoptic typing. Types A and D (“inland cyclone” and “northwestern cyclone”) are associated with strong lower-tropospheric geostrophic …

Synoptic-Scale Characteristics And Precursors Of Cool-Season Precipitation Events At St. John's, Newfoundland, 1979-2005, Shawn M. Milrad, Eyad H. Atallah, John R. Gyakum

Shawn M. Milrad

The issue of quantitative precipitation forecasting continues to be a significant challenge in operational forecasting, particularly in regions susceptible to frequent and extreme precipitation events. St. John’s, Newfoundland, Canada, is one location affected frequently by such events, particularly in the cool season (October–April). These events can include flooding rains, paralyzing snowfall, and damaging winds.

A precipitation climatology is developed at St. John’s for 1979–2005, based on discrete precipitation events occurring over a time period of up to 48 h. Threshold amounts for three categories of precipitation events (extreme, moderate, and light) are statistically derived and utilized to categorize such events. …

Precipitation Modulation By The Saint Lawrence River Valley In Association With Transitioning Tropical Cyclones, Shawn M. Milrad, Eyad H. Atallah, John R. Gyakum

Shawn M. Milrad

The St. Lawrence River valley (SLRV) is an important orographic feature in eastern Canada that can affect surface wind patterns and contribute to locally higher amounts of precipitation. The impact of the SLRV on precipitation distributions associated with transitioning, or transitioned, tropical cyclones that approached the region is assessed. Such cases can result in heavy precipitation during the warm season, as during the transition of Hurricane Ike (2008). Thirty-eight tropical cyclones tracked within 500 km of the SLRV from 1979 to 2011. Utilizing the National Centers for Environmental Prediction (NCEP) North American Regional Reanalysis (NARR), 19 of the 38 cases …

A Meteorological Analysis Of Important Contributions To The 1999-2005 Canadian Prairie Drought, Lisa M. Hryciw, Eyad H. Atallah, Shawn M. Milrad, John R. Gyakum

Shawn M. Milrad

Drought is a complex natural hazard that is endemic to the Canadian prairies. The 1999–2005 Canadian prairie drought, which had great socioeconomic impacts, was meteorologically unique in that it did not conform to the traditional persistent positive Pacific–North American (PNA) pattern and west coast ridging paradigm normally associated with prairie drought. The purpose of this study is to diagnose the unique synoptic-scale mechanisms responsible for modulating subsidence during this drought. Using 30-day running means of the percent of normal precipitation from station data, key severe dry periods during 1999–2005 are identified. Analysis of the mean fields from reanalysis data shows …

A Thermodynamic Analysis Of An Intense North American Arctic Air Mass, Jessica K. Turner, John Gyakum, Shawn M. Milrad

Shawn M. Milrad

Northwestern Canada is a genesis region of arctic air masses often considered to be formed primarily through radiative processes. However, the details of their life cycle are poorly understood. This paper examines the formation, maintenance, and dissipation of an intense and long-lived arctic air mass, using a thermodynamic budget analysis.

The airmass formation is characterized by a deep-layer, multistage process that begins with snow falling into a nascent air mass. Radiative cooling from cloud tops begins the process. After the snow abates and clear skies are observed, the surface temperature drops rapidly, aided by the high emissivity of fresh snow …

A Meteorological Analysis Of Important Contributions To The 1999-2005 Canadian Prairie Drought, Lisa M. Hryciw, Eyad H. Atallah, Shawn M. Milrad, John R. Gyakum

Publications

Drought is a complex natural hazard that is endemic to the Canadian prairies. The 1999–2005 Canadian prairie drought, which had great socioeconomic impacts, was meteorologically unique in that it did not conform to the traditional persistent positive Pacific–North American (PNA) pattern and west coast ridging paradigm normally associated with prairie drought. The purpose of this study is to diagnose the unique synoptic-scale mechanisms responsible for modulating subsidence during this drought. Using 30-day running means of the percent of normal precipitation from station data, key severe dry periods during 1999–2005 are identified. Analysis of the mean fields from reanalysis data shows …

Precipitation Modulation By The Saint Lawrence River Valley In Association With Transitioning Tropical Cyclones, Shawn M. Milrad, Eyad H. Atallah, John R. Gyakum

Publications

The St. Lawrence River valley (SLRV) is an important orographic feature in eastern Canada that can affect surface wind patterns and contribute to locally higher amounts of precipitation. The impact of the SLRV on precipitation distributions associated with transitioning, or transitioned, tropical cyclones that approached the region is assessed. Such cases can result in heavy precipitation during the warm season, as during the transition of Hurricane Ike (2008). Thirty-eight tropical cyclones tracked within 500 km of the SLRV from 1979 to 2011. Utilizing the National Centers for Environmental Prediction (NCEP) North American Regional Reanalysis (NARR), 19 of the 38 cases …

A Thermodynamic Analysis Of An Intense North American Arctic Air Mass, Jessica K. Turner, John Gyakum, Shawn M. Milrad

Publications

Northwestern Canada is a genesis region of arctic air masses often considered to be formed primarily through radiative processes. However, the details of their life cycle are poorly understood. This paper examines the formation, maintenance, and dissipation of an intense and long-lived arctic air mass, using a thermodynamic budget analysis.

The airmass formation is characterized by a deep-layer, multistage process that begins with snow falling into a nascent air mass. Radiative cooling from cloud tops begins the process. After the snow abates and clear skies are observed, the surface temperature drops rapidly, aided by the high emissivity of fresh snow …

Retrieval Of Sub-Pixel-Based Fire Intensity And Its Application For Characterizing Smoke Injection Heights And Fire Weather In North America, David Peterson

Department of Earth and Atmospheric Sciences: Dissertations, Theses, and Student Research

For over two decades, satellite sensors have provided the locations of global fire activity with ever-increasing accuracy. However, the ability to measure fire intensity, know as fire radiative power (FRP), and its potential relationships to meteorology and smoke plume injection heights, are currently limited by the pixel resolution. This dissertation describes the development of a new, sub-pixel-based FRP calculation (FRP_f) for fire pixels detected by the MODerate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer (MODIS) fire detection algorithm (Collection 5), which is subsequently applied to several large wildfire events in North America. The methodology inherits an earlier bi-spectral algorithm for retrieving sub-pixel …

Synoptic-Scale Environments Conducive To Orographic Impacts On Cold-Season Surface Wind Regimes At Montreal, Quebec, Alissa Razy, Shawn M. Milrad, Eyad H, Atallah, John R. Gyakum

Publications

Orographic wind channeling, defined as dynamically and thermally induced processes that force wind to blow along the axis of a valley, is a common occurrence along the St. Lawrence River Valley (SLRV) in Quebec, Canada, and produces substantial observed weather impacts at stations along the valley, including Montreal (CYUL). Cold-season observed north-northeast (n = 55) and south-southeast (n = 16) surface wind events at CYUL are identified from 1979 to 2002. The authors partition the north-northeast wind events into four groups using manual synoptic typing. Types A and D (“inland cyclone” and “northwestern cyclone”) are associated with strong lower-tropospheric geostrophic …

Synoptic-Scale Characteristics And Precursors Of Cool-Season Precipitation Events At St. John's, Newfoundland, 1979-2005, Shawn M. Milrad, Eyad H. Atallah, John R. Gyakum

Publications

The issue of quantitative precipitation forecasting continues to be a significant challenge in operational forecasting, particularly in regions susceptible to frequent and extreme precipitation events. St. John’s, Newfoundland, Canada, is one location affected frequently by such events, particularly in the cool season (October–April). These events can include flooding rains, paralyzing snowfall, and damaging winds.

A precipitation climatology is developed at St. John’s for 1979–2005, based on discrete precipitation events occurring over a time period of up to 48 h. Threshold amounts for three categories of precipitation events (extreme, moderate, and light) are statistically derived and utilized to categorize such events. …

Note On The Ndvi-Lst Relationship And The Use Of Temperature-Related Drought Indices Over North America, D. Sun, Menas Kafatos

Mathematics, Physics, and Computer Science Faculty Articles and Research

A comprehensive evaluation of the relationship between vegetation and Land Surface Temperature (LST) over the North America is presented. It is found that the correlations between LST and Normalized Difference Vegetation Index (NDVI) depend on the season-of-year and time-of-day. For winter, the correlation between NDVI and LST is positive. The strong negative correlations between LST and NDVI are only found during the warm seasons. Thus temperature-related drought indices may only be used in the warm seasons from May to October, and should be used with caution during cold seasons in North America. The cooling effect of vegetation on LST is …