Seven-Doppler Radar and In Situ Analysis of the 25–26 June 2015 Kansas MCS during PECAN
Advanced Search
Select up to three search categories and corresponding keywords using the fields to the right. Refer to the Help section for more detailed instructions.
 
 
i

Superseded

This Document Has Been Replaced By:

i

Retired

This Document Has Been Retired

i

Up-to-date Information

This is the latest update:

Seven-Doppler Radar and In Situ Analysis of the 25–26 June 2015 Kansas MCS during PECAN
  • Published Date:

    2020

  • Source:
    Mon. Wea. Rev. (2020) 148 (1): 211–240.
Filetype[PDF-10.51 MB]


This document cannot be previewed automatically as it exceeds 5 MB
Please click the thumbnail image to view the document.
Seven-Doppler Radar and In Situ Analysis of the 25–26 June 2015 Kansas MCS during PECAN
Details:
  • Personal Author:
  • Description:
    This case study analyzes a nocturnal mesoscale convective system (MCS) that was observed on 25–26 June 2015 in northeastern Kansas during the Plains Elevated Convection At Night (PECAN) project. Over the course of the observational period, a broken line of elevated nocturnal convective cells initiated around 0230 UTC on the cool side of a stationary front and subsequently merged to form a quasi-linear MCS that later developed strong, surface-based outflow and a trailing stratiform region. This study combines radar observations with mobile and fixed mesonet and sounding data taken during PECAN to analyze the kinematics and thermodynamics of the MCS from 0300 to 0630 UTC. This study is unique in that 38 consecutive multi-Doppler wind analyses are examined over the 3.5 h observation period, facilitating a long-duration analysis of the kinematic evolution of the nocturnal MCS. Radar analyses reveal that the initial convective cells and linear MCS are elevated and sustained by an elevated residual layer formed via weak ascent over the stationary front. During upscale growth, individual convective cells develop storm-scale cold pools due to pockets of descending rear-to-front flow that are measured by mobile mesonets. By 0500 UTC, kinematic analysis and mesonet observations show that the MCS has a surface-based cold pool and that convective line updrafts are ingesting parcels from below the stable layer. In this environment, the elevated system has become surface based since the cold pool lifting is sufficient for surface-based parcels to overcome the CIN associated with the frontal stable layer.
  • Keywords:
  • DOI:
    https://doi.org/10.1175/MWR-D-19-0151.1
  • Document Type:
    Journal Article
  • Funding:
    Grant no. NA11OAR4320072
  • Place as Subject:
    Kansas
  • Collection(s):
    NOAA Cooperative Institutes
    Office of Oceanic and Atmospheric Research (OAR)
  • Main Document Checksum:
  • File Type:
  • Supporting Files:
    No Additional Files
    1. Filetype[PDF - 5.43 MB]
      Personal Author:
      Fierro, Alexandre O.; Wang, Yunheng; Gao, Jidong; Mansell, Edward R.;
      Published Date:
      2019
      Source:
      Mon. Wea. Rev. (2019) 147 (11): 4045–4069.
      Description:
      The assimilation of water vapor mass mixing ratio derived from total lightning data from the Geostationary Lightning Mapper (GLM) within a three-dimensional variational (3DVAR) system is evaluated for the analysis and short-term forecast (≤6 h) of ...
      File Type:
      Filetype[PDF - 5.43 MB]
    2. Filetype[PDF - 14.87 MB]
      Personal Author:
      Weckwerth, Tammy M., 1966-; Hanesiak, John; Wilson, James W.; Trier, Stanley B.; Degelia, Samuel K.; Gallus, William A.; Roberts, Rita D.; Wang, Xuguang;
      Published Date:
      2019
      Source:
      Bull. Amer. Meteor. Soc. (2019) 100 (11): 2223–2239.
      Description:
      Nocturnal convection initiation (NCI) is more difficult to anticipate and forecast than daytime convection initiation (CI). A major component of the Plains Elevated Convection at Night (PECAN) field campaign in the U.S. Great Plains was to intensivel...
      File Type:
      Filetype[PDF - 14.87 MB]
    3. Filetype[PDF - 9.68 MB]
      Personal Author:
      Zrnić, Dušan S.; Zhang, Pengfei; Melnikov, Valery; Mirkovic, Djordje;
      Published Date:
      2020
      Source:
      Atmosphere 2020, 11(4), 363.
      Description:
      Weather surveillance radars routinely detect smoke of various origin. Of particular significance to the meteorological community are wildfires in forests and/or prairies. For example, one responsibility of the National Weather Service in the USA is t...
      File Type:
      Filetype[PDF - 9.68 MB]
    4. Filetype[PDF - 13.80 MB]
      Personal Author:
      Zrnić, Dušan S.; Zhang, P.; Melnikov, V.; Kabela, E.;
      Published Date:
      2020
      Source:
      Bull. Amer. Meteor. Soc. (2020) 101 (2): E90–E108.
      Description:
      High-sensitivity weather radars easily detect nonmeteorological phenomena characterized by weak radar returns. Fireworks are the example presented here. To understand radar observations, an experiment was conducted in which the National Severe Storms...
      File Type:
      Filetype[PDF - 13.80 MB]
    5. Filetype[PDF - 1.75 MB]
      Personal Author:
      Anderson-Frey, Alexandra K.; Brooks, Harold;
      Published Date:
      2019
      Source:
      Wea. Forecasting (2019) 34 (6): 1999–2015.
      Description:
      Deadly tornadoes are rare events, but that level of rarity varies with many factors. In this work, we summarize and update past research on tornado fatalities, and also discuss the environments of deadly tornadoes both from the perspective of proximi...
      File Type:
      Filetype[PDF - 1.75 MB]
    6. Filetype[PDF - 4.89 MB]
      Personal Author:
      Erlingis, Jessica M.; Gourley, Jonathan J.; Basara, Jeffrey B. (Jeffrey Brent), 1973-;
      Published Date:
      2019
      Source:
      J. Hydrometeor. (2019) 20 (8): 1511–1531.
      Description:
      Backward trajectories were derived from North American Regional Reanalysis data for 19 253 flash flood reports published by the National Weather Service to determine the along-path contribution of the land surface to the moisture budget for flash flo...
      File Type:
      Filetype[PDF - 4.89 MB]
    7. Filetype[PDF - 8.30 MB]
      Personal Author:
      Stratman, Derek R.; Yussouf, Nusrat; Jung, Youngsun; Supinie, Timothy A.; Xue, Ming; Skinner, Patrick S.; Putnam, Bryan J.;
      Published Date:
      2020
      Source:
      Wea. Forecasting (2020) 35 (1): 193–214.
      Description:
      A potential replacement candidate for the aging operational WSR-88D infrastructure currently in place is the phased array radar (PAR) system. The current WSR-88Ds take ~5 min to produce a full volumetric scan of the atmosphere, whereas PAR technology...
      File Type:
      Filetype[PDF - 8.30 MB]
    8. Filetype[PDF - 14.66 MB]
      Personal Author:
      Lai, Anwei; Gao, Jidong; Koch, Steven E.; Wang, Yunheng; Pan, Sijie; Fierro, Alexandre O.; Cui, Chunguang; Min, Jinzhong;
      Published Date:
      2019
      Source:
      Mon. Wea. Rev. (2019) 147 (8): 2877–2900.
      Description:
      To improve severe thunderstorm prediction, a novel pseudo-observation and assimilation approach involving water vapor mass mixing ratio is proposed to better initialize NWP forecasts at convection-resolving scales. The first step of the algorithm ide...
      File Type:
      Filetype[PDF - 14.66 MB]
    9. Filetype[PDF - 15.96 MB]
      Personal Author:
      Wang, Yunheng; Gao, Jidong; Skinner, Patrick; Knopfmeier, Kent; Jones, Thomas; Creager, Gerry; Heiselman, Pamela L.; Wicker, Louis J.;
      Published Date:
      2019
      Source:
      Wea. Forecasting (2019) 34 (6): 1807–1827.
      Description:
      A real-time, weather adaptive, dual-resolution, hybrid Warn-on-Forecast (WoF) analysis and forecast system using the WRF-ARW forecast model has been developed and implemented. The system includes two components, an ensemble analysis and forecast comp...
      File Type:
      Filetype[PDF - 15.96 MB]
    10. Filetype[PDF - 6.72 MB]
      Personal Author:
      Hux, Jiaxi; Rosenfeld, Daniel; Ryzhkov, Alexander; Zhang, Pengfei;
      Published Date:
      2020
      Source:
      J. Appl. Meteor. Climatol. (2020) 59 (6): 1051–1068.
      Description:
      This study analyzes the microphysics and precipitation pattern of Hurricanes Harvey (2017) and Florence (2018) in both the eyewall and outer rainband regions. From the retrievals by a satellite red–green–blue scheme, the outer rainbands show a st...
      File Type:
      Filetype[PDF - 6.72 MB]
    11. Filetype[PDF - 3.33 MB]
      Personal Author:
      Jahn, David E.; Gallus, William A.; Nguyen, Phong T. T.; Pan, Qiyun; Cetin, Kristen; Byon, Eunshin; Manuel, Lance; Zhou, Yuyu; Jahani, Elham;
      Published Date:
      2019
      Source:
      Atmosphere 2019, 10(12), 727.
      Description:
      Climate studies based on global climate models (GCMs) project a steady increase in annual average temperature and severe heat extremes in central North America during the mid-century and beyond. However, the agreement of observed trends with climate ...
      File Type:
      Filetype[PDF - 3.33 MB]
    12. Filetype[PDF - 1.10 MB]
      Personal Author:
      Kerr, Christopher A.; Wang, Xuguang;
      Published Date:
      2020
      Source:
      Mon. Wea. Rev. (2020) 148 (3): 877–890.
      Description:
      The potential future installation of a multifunction phased-array radar (MPAR) network will provide capabilities of case-specific adaptive scanning. Knowing the impacts adaptive scanning may have on short-term forecasts will influence scanning strate...
      File Type:
      Filetype[PDF - 1.10 MB]
    13. Filetype[PDF - 2.15 MB]
      Personal Author:
      Nai, Feng; Curtis, Christopher; Torres, Sebastián;
      Published Date:
      2020
      Source:
      J. Atmos. Oceanic Technol. (2020) 37 (6): 1103–1116.
      Description:
      Severe thunderstorms and their associated tornadoes pose significant threats to life and property, and using radar data to accurately measure the rotational velocity of circulations in thunderstorms is essential for appropriate, timely warnings. One ...
      File Type:
      Filetype[PDF - 2.15 MB]
    14. Filetype[PDF - 6.29 MB]
      Personal Author:
      Lawson, John R.; Galllus, William A.; Potvin, Corey K.;
      Published Date:
      2020
      Source:
      Atmosphere 2020, 11(4), 384.
      Description:
      The bow echo, a mesoscale convective system (MCS) responsible for much hail and wind damage across the United States, is associated with poor skill in convection-allowing numerical model forecasts. Given the decrease in convection-allowing grid spaci...
      File Type:
      Filetype[PDF - 6.29 MB]
    15. Filetype[PDF - 9.09 MB]
      Personal Author:
      Galarneau, Thomas J.; Xubin, Zeng;
      Published Date:
      2020
      Source:
      Mon. Wea. Rev. (2020) 148 (6): 2479–2502.
      Description:
      A synoptic analysis and soil moisture (SM) sensitivity experiment is conducted on the record-breaking rainstorm in Texas associated with Hurricane Harvey on 26–30 August 2017. The rainstorm occurred as the moist tropical air mass associated with Ha...
      File Type:
      Filetype[PDF - 9.09 MB]
    16. Filetype[PDF - 9.21 MB]
      Personal Author:
      Jones, Thomas A.; Skinner, Patrick; Yussouf, Nusrat; Knopfmeier, Kent; Reinhart, Anthony; Wang, Xuguang; Bedka, Kristopher; Smith, William Jr.; Palikonda, Rabindra;
      Published Date:
      2020
      Source:
      Mon. Wea. Rev. (2020) 148 (5): 1829–1859.
      Description:
      The increasing maturity of the Warn-on-Forecast System (WoFS) coupled with the now operational GOES-16 satellite allows for the first time a comprehensive analysis of the relative impacts of assimilating GOES-16 all-sky 6.2-, 6.9-, and 7.3-μm channe...
      File Type:
      Filetype[PDF - 9.21 MB]
    17. Filetype[PDF - 2.35 MB]
      Personal Author:
      Dawson, Daniel T.; Roberts, Brett; Xue, Ming;
      Published Date:
      2019
      Source:
      Mon. Wea. Rev. (2019) 147 (11): 3935–3954.
      Description:
      In idealized, horizontally homogeneous, cloud model simulations of convective storms, the action of surface friction can substantially modify the near-ground environmental wind profile over time owing to the lack of a large-scale pressure gradient fo...
      File Type:
      Filetype[PDF - 2.35 MB]
    18. Filetype[PDF - 5.07 MB]
      Personal Author:
      Loken, Eric D.; Clark, Adam J.; McGovern, Amy; Flora, Montgomery; Knopfmeier, Kent;
      Published Date:
      2019
      Source:
      Wea. Forecasting (2019) 34 (6): 2017–2044.
      Description:
      Most ensembles suffer from underdispersion and systematic biases. One way to correct for these shortcomings is via machine learning (ML), which is advantageous due to its ability to identify and correct nonlinear biases. This study uses a single rand...
      File Type:
      Filetype[PDF - 5.07 MB]
    19. Filetype[PDF - 7.28 MB]
      Personal Author:
      Kong, Rong; Xue, Ming; Fierro, Alexandre O.; Jung, Youngsun; Liu, Chengsi; Mansell, Edward R.; MacGorman, D. R.;
      Published Date:
      2020
      Source:
      Mon. Wea. Rev. (2020) 148 (5): 2111–2133.
      Description:
      The recently launched Geostationary Operational Environmental Satellite “R-series” (GOES-R) satellites carry the Geostationary Lightning Mapper (GLM) that measures from space the total lightning rate in convective storms at high spatial and tempo...
      File Type:
      Filetype[PDF - 7.28 MB]
    20. Filetype[PDF - 2.49 MB]
      Personal Author:
      Flora, Montgomery L.; Skinner, Patrick S.; Potvin, Corey K.; Reinhart, Anthony E.; Jones, Thomas A.; Yussouf, Nusrat; Knopfmeier, Kent H.;
      Published Date:
      2019
      Source:
      Wea. Forecasting (2019) 34 (6): 1721–1739.
      Description:
      An object-based verification method for short-term, storm-scale probabilistic forecasts was developed and applied to mesocyclone guidance produced by the experimental Warn-on-Forecast System (WoFS) in 63 cases from 2017 to 2018. The probabilistic mes...
      File Type:
      Filetype[PDF - 2.49 MB]

You May Also Like:

  1. Filetype[PDF - 2.15 MB]
    Personal Author:
    Nai, Feng; Curtis, Christopher; Torres, Sebastián;
    Published Date:
    2020
    Source:
    J. Atmos. Oceanic Technol. (2020) 37 (6): 1103–1116.
    Description:
    Severe thunderstorms and their associated tornadoes pose significant threats to life and property, and using radar data to accurately measure the rotational velocity of circulations in thunderstorms is essential for appropriate, timely warnings. One ...
    File Type:
    Filetype[PDF - 2.15 MB]