An investigation of a dramatic cold outbreak over southeast Australia
This paper investigates an episode of three successive cold outbreak events that took place over southeast Australia during May-June 2000. Of these three cold events, the most intense occurred on 27-28 May and was associated with a Melbourne maximum temperature of only 10.2°C. This is the second low...
| Main Authors: | , |
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| Format: | Text |
| Language: | English |
| Published: |
2001
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| Subjects: | |
| Online Access: | http://citeseerx.ist.psu.edu/viewdoc/summary?doi=10.1.1.222.9813 http://www.bom.gov.au/amm/docs/2001/simmonds.pdf |
| Summary: | This paper investigates an episode of three successive cold outbreak events that took place over southeast Australia during May-June 2000. Of these three cold events, the most intense occurred on 27-28 May and was associated with a Melbourne maximum temperature of only 10.2°C. This is the second lowest daily maximum temperature recorded in Melbourne for May since 1958. The other two events, with slightly higher daily maximum temperatures, followed the first event closely. Various data processing techniques along with an air-parcel trajectory model and a sophisticated vortex tracking scheme are utilised to examine several aspects of these cold events, with a particular emphasis on the major event of 27 May. Results show that the synoptic pattern and its temporal evolution leading to the major event were characterised by a persistent anticyclone-cyclone dipole, located south of Australia. On the onset day, the configuration and position of this anticyclone-cyclone pair was such that a strong cold advection from the interior of Antarctica was implied, which was confirmed by |
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