Climatology of precipitation and clouds over NW_ATLANTIC
NW ATLANTIC


General info
Precipitation
System properties
Cloud
Seasonal variation
Diurnal variation
Vertical Structure
Extreme events
Time series
  • Mean properties of precipitation system

  • During 1998-2013, total 1977071 snapshots of precipitation features with size > 80 km^2 have been collected over NW_ATLANTIC , where 2655 of them have lightning flashes inside. Some mean properties of these features are listed below:
    samples (#) mean size (km^2) mean volumetric rain (mm/hr*km^2) mean echo top (km) mean 30 dBZ ehco top (km)mean flash count (#)
    All 1977071 132 378 3.2 0.7 0.01
    DJF 609440 136 375 3.0 0.6 0.01
    MAM 383443 114 284 3.0 0.5 0.00
    JJA 321210 93 253 3.2 0.6 0.00
    SON 662978 157 495 3.5 0.9 0.01

  • Extreme rainy events
  • In all 1977071 precipitation features, top 1% ( volumetric rain > 3349 mm/hr*km^2) rainy features contribute 64 % of total rainfall. Top 100 rainiest events observed by TRMM during 1998-2013 over NW_ATLANTIC are listed here . Following figure shows the location of the precipitation feautres categorized by the volumetric rainfall.


  • Extreme intense events
  • Some of the precipitation sytems are much intense with large hails and many lightning than others (see the lists of top lightning storms. Following figure shows the location of the precipitation feautres categorized by the lightning rate and 30 dBZ echo top.


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