A Study of Landfalling Tropical Storms Alan F. Srock, Lance F. Bosart, and John Molinari University at Albany (SUNY) Albany, NY 12222
NROW V – November 4, 2003 contact:
[email protected]
Objectives
- Effects and Impacts of - Fronts - Orography - Speed of Movement - Vortex Evolution and Interaction - Improve Precipitation Forecast
Data Sources
- NCEP/NCAR 6-hourly Global Reanalysis - Unified Precipitation Dataset (UPD) - Archived Surface Maps from DIFAX (NMC/NCEP) - Surface data from various datasets available at NCAR/UCAR
Selection of Cases
- 70 Atlantic tropical cyclones made landfall in the United States between 1972 and 1998 - 15 were selected for further study - TS Chris (1988) and TS Marco (1990) were chosen for this presentation
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Overview of TS Chris
- 26-30 August 1988 - Short lifetime as a tropical storm - Only named tropical cyclone in area
- East Coast track, east of Appalachians - Re-intensification over the Northeast
Summary - TS Chris - Lack of other nearby tropical cyclones
- Massive slow-moving trough over Great Lakes - Undergoes extratropical transition after interaction with low-level system - Secondary precip maximum over NE US
Overview of TS Marco
- 9-13 October 1990 - Short lifetime as a tropical storm - Other tropical cyclones in proximity
- East Coast track, east of Appalachians - Cyclone does not reach the Northeast
Summary - TS Marco - Moisture remnants from Klaus
- First trough may have caused northward precipitation bulge - Two trough interactions occurred, but no extratropical transition with either - Blocked from northward propagation by Lili
Comparison & Conclusions - C: No other TCs in the vicinity - M: Environment affected by earlier TC - C: Single trough picked up low-level cyclone, transitioning and moving NE - M: Two troughs had opportunities to transition Marco, although neither did
Future Work - Look into effects of synoptically forced front with Chris and coastal front associated with Marco
- Examine other effects of multiple cyclone centers in the Marco/Lili case - Look into new datasets, including NARR
References - Climate Diagnostics Center (CDC) Daily Composite Plots. Available at http://www.cdc.noaa.gov/Composites/Day/. - Kalnay, E., et al., 1996: The NCEP/NCAR 40-Year Reanalysis Project. Bulletin of the AMS, 77, 437-471.
- Morales, Ronald F. Jr., 1992: Evolution of a Long-Lived Vortex of Tropical Storm Origin. Master's Thesis at SUNY-Albany, 145 pp. - Sheets, R. C., 1990: The National Hurricane Center – Past, Present, and Future. Monthly Weather Review, 5, 185-232.
