Sting jets in severe northern European wind storms

Baker, Laura

doi:10.1002/wea.397

Cited by 41 publications

(70 citation statements)

References 10 publications

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“…5a,b). At both 1800 UTC 7 December and 0000 UTC 8 December, the strongest winds associated with the sting jet were adjacent to and below the near-saturated area in the model, displaying a relationship consistent with previous studies (Browning 2004;Clark et al 2005;Parton et al 2009;Baker 2009;Gray et al 2011). …”

supporting

confidence: 89%

“…The cold conveyor belt is a near-surface airstream of cold air underneath the warm-frontal zone (Carlson 1980;Schultz 2001). Strong winds in cold conveyor belts may or may not be present in addition to sting jets (e.g., Clark et al 2005;Baker 2009;Gray et al 2011;Baker et al 2013a;Smart and Browning 2013). The physical processes that lead to strong winds in the sting jet versus those that lead to strong winds in the cold conveyor belt have not been elucidated.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…[Baker et al (2013a) argued that the 50-km horizontal grid spacing and 14 vertical levels was inadequate to produce a sting jet in Cao (2009).] Diagnostic tools have been developed that employ measures of CSI for finding sting jets in a large number of cases (e.g., Baker 2009;Gray et al 2011;Martínez-Alvarado et al 2011. As a consequence of these eight studies listed above, Baker et al (2013a) stated that, ''instability release is the dominant sting-jet driving mechanism,'' and the release of CSI has become the leading physical mechanism proposed to explain the intensity of winds in sting jets.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

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Using Frontogenesis to Identify Sting Jets in Extratropical Cyclones

Schultz

Sienkiewicz

2013

Weather and Forecasting

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Sting jets, or surface wind maxima at the end of bent-back fronts in Shapiro-Keyser cyclones, are one cause of strong winds in extratropical cyclones. Although previous studies identified the release of conditional symmetric instability as a cause of sting jets, the mechanism to initiate its release remains unidentified. To identify this mechanism, a case study was selected of an intense cyclone over the North Atlantic Ocean during 7-8 December 2005 that possessed a sting jet detected from the NASA Quick Scatterometer (QuikSCAT). A couplet of Petterssen frontogenesis and frontolysis occurred along the bent-back front. The direct circulation associated with the frontogenesis led to ascent within the cyclonically turning portion of the warm conveyor belt, contributing to the comma-cloud head. When the bent-back front became frontolytic, an indirect circulation associated with the frontolysis, in conjunction with alongfront cold advection, led to descent within and on the warm side of the front, bringing higher-momentum air down toward the boundary layer. Sensible heat fluxes from the ocean surface and cold-air advection destabilized the boundary layer, resulting in near-neutral static stability facilitating downward mixing. Thus, descent associated with the frontolysis reaching a near-neutral boundary layer provides a physical mechanism for sting jets, is consistent with previous studies, and synthesizes existing knowledge. Specifically, this couplet of frontogenesis and frontolysis could explain why sting jets occur at the end of the bent-back front and emerge from the cloud head, why sting jets are mesoscale phenomena, and why they only occur within Shapiro-Keyser cyclones. A larger dataset of cases is necessary to test this hypothesis.

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supporting

confidence: 89%

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

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Using Frontogenesis to Identify Sting Jets in Extratropical Cyclones

Schultz

Sienkiewicz

2013

Weather and Forecasting

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“…Kyrill, see Fink et al, 2009), and double frontal structures (e.g. Erwin, see Baker, 2009). On the latter point, a recent study by Mulqueen and Schultz (2015) suggests that multiple frontal structures are commonplace for deep cyclones, at least on manually produced Met Office synoptic charts.…”

Section: Summary and Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…In discussing storm Erwin, Baker (2009) suggests that the SJ for that case was weaker than the CJ, based mainly on model simulation figures shown for 850 hPa at a particular time. However, if imagery is compared with surface observations over time during the passage of Erwin, two pulses of very strong gusts can be detected.…”

Section: Isobaric Patternmentioning

confidence: 99%

Cyclones, windstorms and the IMILAST project

Hewson

Neu

2015

Tellus A: Dynamic Meteorology and Oceanography

141

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A B S T R A C T By way of introduction to the TELLUS thematic cluster on outcomes of the IMILAST project (Intercomparison of MId-LAtitude STorm diagnostics), this paper presents the results of new research that is fundamental for the correct interpretation of IMILAST results. Specifically we investigated the mesoscale structure of cyclonic windstorms, and the representation of those windstorms in re-analysis data. The paper concludes with an overview of the project itself. Twenty-nine historic windstorms are studied in detail, using wide-ranging observational data, and on this basis a conceptual model of the life cycle of a typical windstorm-generating cyclone is developed. The model delineates three wind phenomena, the warm jet, the sting jet and the cold jet, and maps out the typical damage footprint left by each. Focussing on the boundary layer, the physical processes at work in each jet zone are investigated. These include the impact of near-surface stability and exposure on gust strength. Based on numerous cases, a generic description of the sting jet is provided, with many new features highlighted. This phenomenon looks to be unique in that exceptional gusts can be realised well inland because destabilisation is activated from above. We next investigate how well the widely-referenced ERA-Interim re-analysis, that has been a primary data source for IMILAST, can represent windstorms. In many ways, performance is suboptimal. Compared to a benchmark manually-analysed dataset, windstorm-generating cyclones generally do not deepen rapidly enough. In part, this is a resolution limitation. For one medium-sized cyclone, it is shown, using other models, that horizontal resolution of order 20 km or better is required to capture the most damaging winds. In the context of IMILAST, which has used data at resolutions ]80 km, this is a fundamental result. For this and other reasons, caution is clearly needed when inferring storm behaviour and severity from model-based metrics.

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Subsynoptic‐scale features associated with extreme surface gusts in UK extratropical cyclone events

Earl

Dorling

Starks

et al. 2017

Geophysical Research Letters

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Numerous studies have addressed the mesoscale features within extratropical cyclones (ETCs) that are responsible for the most destructive winds, though few have utilized surface observation data, and most are based on case studies. By using a 39‐station UK surface observation network, coupled with in‐depth analysis of the causes of extreme gusts during the period 2008–2014, we show that larger‐scale features (warm and cold conveyer belts) are most commonly associated with the top 1% of UK gusts but smaller‐scale features generate the most extreme winds. The cold conveyor belt is far more destructive when joining the momentum of the ETC, rather than earlier in its trajectory, ahead of the approaching warm front. Sting jets and convective lines account for two thirds of severe surface gusts in the UK.

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Sting jets in severe northern European wind storms

Cited by 41 publications

References 10 publications

Using Frontogenesis to Identify Sting Jets in Extratropical Cyclones

Using Frontogenesis to Identify Sting Jets in Extratropical Cyclones

Cyclones, windstorms and the IMILAST project

Subsynoptic‐scale features associated with extreme surface gusts in UK extratropical cyclone events

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