Extreme Rainfall and Flooding from Supercell Thunderstorms

Smith, James A.; Baeck, Mary Lynn; Zhang, Yu; Doswell, Charles A.

doi:10.1175/1525-7541(2001)002<0469:eraffs>2.0.co;2

Cited by 98 publications

(78 citation statements)

References 17 publications

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“…Compared to individual tornado and flash flood events, relatively few studies have examined the meteorology and climatology associated with TORFF events (Rogash and Smith 2000;Smith et al 2001;RR02). RR02 discussed the meteorological characteristics associated with significant tornado events [at least two tornados rated as category 2 events on the Fujita scale (F2) or one F3 tornado] and flash flooding that occurs within 250 km and 3 h of one another from 1992 to 1998, and found that the meteorological setup was largely indicative of typical tornadic environmental characteristics.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Double Impact: When Both Tornadoes and Flash Floods Threaten the Same Place at the Same Time

Nielsen

Herman

Tournay

et al. 2015

Weather and Forecasting

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While both tornadoes and flash floods individually present public hazards, when the two threats are both concurrent and collocated (referred to here as TORFF events), unique concerns arise. This study aims to evaluate the climatological and meteorological characteristics associated with TORFF events over the continental United States. Two separate datasets, one based on overlapping tornado and flash flood warnings and the other based on observations, were used to arrive at estimations of the instances when a TORFF event was deemed imminent and verified to have occurred, respectively. These datasets were then used to discern the geographical and meteorological characteristics of recent TORFF events. During 2008-14, TORFF events were found to be publicly communicated via overlapping warnings an average of 400 times per year, with a maximum frequency occurring in the lower Mississippi River valley. Additionally, 68 verified TORFF events between 2008 and 2013 were identified and subsequently classified based on synoptic characteristics and radar observations. In general, synoptic conditions associated with TORFF events were found to exhibit similar characteristics of typical tornadic environments, but the TORFF environment tended to be moister and have stronger synoptic-scale forcing for ascent. These results indicate that TORFF events occur with appreciable frequency and in complex meteorological scenarios. Furthermore, despite these identified differences, TORFF scenarios are not easily distinguishable from tornadic events that fail to produce collocated flash flooding, and present difficult challenges both from the perspective of forecasting and public communication.

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Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Double Impact: When Both Tornadoes and Flash Floods Threaten the Same Place at the Same Time

Nielsen

Herman

Tournay

et al. 2015

Weather and Forecasting

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show abstract

“…In addition to MCSs, high-precipitation supercells have been observed to produce flash floods Smith et al 2001). Others have shown that extreme precipitation can result from both strongly and weakly forced synoptic systems (MCH79; Heideman and Fritsch 1988;Bradley and Smith 1994), from tropical storms and hurricanes (Davis 2001), and from terrain-forced convection (Petersen et al 1999;Pontrelli et al 1999).…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Organization and Environmental Properties of Extreme-Rain-Producing Mesoscale Convective Systems

2005

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This study examines the radar-indicated structures and other features of extreme rain events in the United States over a 3-yr period. A rainfall event is defined as "extreme" when the 24-h precipitation total at one or more stations surpasses the 50-yr recurrence interval amount for that location. This definition yields 116 such cases from 1999 to 2001 in the area east of the Rocky Mountains, excluding Florida. Two-kilometer national composite radar reflectivity data are then used to examine the structure and evolution of each extreme rain event. Sixty-five percent of the total number of events are associated with mesoscale convective systems (MCSs). While a wide variety of organizational structures (as indicated by radar reflectivity data) are seen among the MCS cases, two patterns of organization are observed most frequently. The first type has a line, often oriented east-west, with "training" convective elements. It also has a region of adjoining stratiform rain that is displaced to the north of the line. The second type has a back-building or quasi-stationary area of convection that produces a region of stratiform rain downstream. Surface observations and composite analysis of Rapid Update Cycle Version 2 (RUC-2) model data reveal that training line/adjoining stratiform (TL/AS) systems typically form in a very moist, unstable environment on the cool side of a preexisting slow-moving surface boundary. On the other hand, back-building/quasistationary (BB) MCSs are more dependent on mesoscale and storm-scale processes, particularly lifting provided by storm-generated cold pools, than on preexisting synoptic boundaries.

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“…Although there has been fair amount of research on forecasting flash floods and the associated flood producing systems over the last few decades (e.g. Maddox et al 1979;Doswell et al 1996;Smith et al 2001), most ofthis research has been conducted on weather systems outside of Africa. Therefore, it is essential that continued global research is performed on the types of systems that may have a large negative impact on society.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Numerical simulation of a mesoscale convective system over the east coast of South Africa

Blamey

Reason

2009

TELLUSA

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Extreme Rainfall and Flooding from Supercell Thunderstorms

Abstract: Supercell thunderstorms, the storm systems responsible for most tornadoes, have often been dismissed as flood hazards. The role of supercell thunderstorms as flood agents is examined through analyses of storm systems that occurred in

Cited by 98 publications

References 17 publications

Double Impact: When Both Tornadoes and Flash Floods Threaten the Same Place at the Same Time

Double Impact: When Both Tornadoes and Flash Floods Threaten the Same Place at the Same Time

Organization and Environmental Properties of Extreme-Rain-Producing Mesoscale Convective Systems

Numerical simulation of a mesoscale convective system over the east coast of South Africa

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