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Forcing, instability and equivalent potential vorticity in a Midwest USA convective snowstorm

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  30 October 2003

Christopher E Halcomb  and
Patrick S Market
Christopher E Halcomb
Affiliation:
Department of Atmospheric Sciences, University of Missouri-Columbia, 387 McReynolds Hall, Columbia MO 65211 e-mail: marketp@missouri.edu
Patrick S Market
Affiliation:
Department of Atmospheric Sciences, University of Missouri-Columbia, 387 McReynolds Hall, Columbia MO 65211 e-mail: marketp@missouri.edu
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Abstract

This paper investigates a case of convective snow that was observed with an occluded-type cyclone. Cross-section and plan-view analyses show that convection resulted from the release of elevated, potential instability by isentropic uplift associated with an easterly trowal airstream (a western extension of the warm conveyor belt) located between 700 and 850 hPa. Forcing for ascent was supplied by low-level frontogenesis, as well as an intensifying 500hPa tropopause fold and its associated potential vorticity anomaly. The latter not only provided a source of very cold, dense air, but also was responsible for lower tropospheric cyclogenesis and subsequent trowal generation.

Type
Research Article
Information
Meteorological Applications , Volume 10 , Issue 3 , September 2003 , pp. 273 - 280
Copyright
© 2003 Royal Meteorological Society

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