Dynamic and Thermodynamic Mechanisms for the Onset of the Southeastern United States Convective Season

• Main Author: Wells, Hannah C
• Other Authors: Rickenbach, Thomas M, Geography, Planning, and Environment
• Format: Master Thesis
• Language: English
• Published: East Carolina University 2018
• Subjects: Isolated precipitation feature; North Atlantic subtropical high; Convection (Meteorology) > Southern States; Precipitation (Meteorology) > Southern States; North Atlantic
• Online Access: http://hdl.handle.net/10342/6958

The southeastern United States (SE US) receives ample precipitation year-round. In the winter, precipitation primarily comes from synoptic-scale baroclinic systems and cold fronts. Meanwhile, precipitation in the summer over the SE US is primarily the result of convection. With this shift from the winter to summertime precipitation regimes, spring is the transition period to the convective season, and this transition occurs rather abruptly. This shift can be described as a sudden increase in precipitation from isolated precipitation features (IPF) while precipitation from mesoscale precipitation features (MPF) stays relatively unchanged over the SE US. IPF is defined as small, short-lived, and spatially heterogeneous features while MPF is defined as larger, well-organized, and generally longer-lived precipitating features. To study the springtime transition to the convective season, the SE US was split into twenty-seven 2°x2° boxes. Precipitation data for March-August from the National Mosaic and Multi-Sensor Quantitative Precipitation Estimation (QPE) (NMQ) for the years 2009-2012 is used to determine onset using an objective method based on IPF precipitation in each of the twenty-seven boxes for each year and for the four-year average. Meteorological data from the North American Regional Reanalysis (NARR) is analyzed to determine potential dynamic and thermodynamic mechanisms that cause onset of the convective season in the SE US. Thermodynamic variables analyzed include convective available potential energy (CAPE), surface temperature, and specific humidity. Dynamic variables analyzed include 500 hPa geopotential height, mean sea level pressure (MSLP), and 850 hPa wind speed and direction. Daily composites of NARR are generated for May and June, while pentad average composites are generated for April-July for each year. Pentad averages of IPF will be created using the NMQ dataset to determine the pentad of onset. Three different sensitivity tests are also conducted to determine how sensitive onset is to the ...