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Meteorological settings associated with significant convective storms in Colorado
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1981
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Description:Colorado's location, far removed from moisture sources, combines with its wide variety of orographic features to make the accurate forecasting of convective storms quite difficult. A brief climatology of > Colorado severe convective storms - those that produce damaging hail, damaging winds, tornadoes or flash floods - is developed and it is shown that Colorado's severe storm season occurs considerably later in the year than it does in the central and eastern United States. A review of past studies of the meteorological settings that lead to severe storms, combined with detailed analyses of a number of recent significant events, is utilized to develop a general description of convectively favorable synoptic environments. It is shown that the "typical" Colorado severe storm environment is usually quite benign (especially in contrast to situations that produce severe storm outbreaks over the central United States) with relatively weak and ill-defined features and wind fields present in the middle and upper troposphere. However, the associated surface patterns are repetitive and quite distinct. Close examination of the evolution of central United States dewpoint temperature during an eight-day period indicates that, at least in some situations, the moisture source that eventually fuels severe storm development in Colorado is evapotranspiration over the central and northern Plains. The implication is that the forecaster must closely monitor the evolution and continuity of meteorological conditions over a large portion of the United States if he is to correctly anticipate the beginning of a severe thunderstorm episode in Colorado.
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Rights Information:CC0 Public Domain
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Compliance:Library
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