Gap-Filling Mobile Radar Observations of a Snow Squall in the San Luis Valley

Details

• Journal Title:
  Monthly Weather Review
• Personal Author:
  Rosenow, Andrew A. ; Howard, Kenneth ; Meitín, José
• NOAA Program & Office:
  CIMMS (Cooperative Institute for Mesoscale Meteorological Studies) ; OAR (Oceanic and Atmospheric Research) ; NSSL (National Severe Storms Laboratory)
• Description:
  On 24 January 2017, a convective snow squall developed in the San Luis Valley of Colorado. This squall produced rapidly varying winds at San Luis Valley airport in Alamosa, Colorado, with gusts up to 12 m s−1, and an associated visibility drop to 1.4 km from unlimited in less than 10 min. This snow squall was largely undetected by the operational WSR-88D network because of the Sangre de Cristo Range of the Rocky Mountains lying between the valley and the nearest WSR-88D in Pueblo, Colorado. This study presents observations of the snow squall from the X-band NOAA X-Pol radar, which was deployed in the San Luis Valley during the event. These observations document the squall developing from individual convective cells and growing upscale into a linear squall, with peak radial velocities of 15 m s−1. The environment conducive to the development of this snow squall is examined using data from the High-Resolution Rapid Refresh model, which shows an environment unstable to ascending surface-based parcels, with surface-based convective available potential energy (SBCAPE) values up to 600 J kg−1 in the San Luis Valley. The mobile radar data are integrated into the Multi-Radar Multi-Sensor (MRMS) mosaic to illustrate both the large improvement in detectability of this event gained from a gap-filling radar as well as the capability of MRMS to incorporate data from new radars designed to fill gaps in the current radar network.
• Keywords:
  Radar Snow
• Source:
  Mon. Wea. Rev. (2018) 146 (8): 2469–2481.
• DOI:
  https://doi.org/10.1175/MWR-D-17-0323.1
• Document Type:
  Journal Article
• Funding:
  Grant no. NA11OAR4320072
• Place as Subject:
  San Luis Valley (Colo. and N.M.)
• Rights Information:
  Other
• Compliance:
  Submitted
• Main Document Checksum:
  urn:sha-512:dc01264c1d95af36001be903ed277f4776fab7ecebd3fbbfeabd8eb176428f578f80a08bb5d848ea5ae69f2e41466fa5e3b4b596f9e174c5a8fe38bf6954afe2
• Download URL:
  https://repository.library.noaa.gov/view/noaa/25690/noaa_25690_DS1.pdf
• File Type:
  [PDF - 3.31 MB ]