The Effects of Orographic Geometry on Supercell Thunderstorms

TL;DR

This study uses numerical simulations to examine how different mountain shapes and positions influence supercell thunderstorm behavior, including their lifecycle, rainfall, and tornadic potential, revealing terrain orientation as a key factor.

Contribution

It introduces a detailed analysis of how orographic geometry affects supercell dynamics and tornadogenesis, highlighting terrain orientation's role in storm intensity and tornado formation.

Findings

Higher inflow rates shorten supercell cycles.

Terrain blocking influences tornadogenesis potential.

Elongated terrain aligned with storm propagation enhances tornado likelihood.

Abstract

The effect of elongated bell-shaped mountain orientation on supercell thunderstorms is numerically investigated using the Bryan Cloud Model 1 (CM1). The orography is varied by three mountain heights and is varied in four different positions, effectively producing 12 different terrain configurations. It is found that the different orientations produce variations in the supercell life cycle with shorter cycles for higher inflow rates. Furthermore, these cycles are associated with the storm reaching its minimum intensity just after a peak rain period. Moreover, the effect of stronger inflow was seen before direct storm-terrain interactions started. The higher inflow also played a significant role in increasing rainfall rate and areal extent, to the point that further convection, associated with the cold pool, was triggered adding to rainfall amount. Using a stricter form of the National Weather Service Tornado Detection Algorithm to investigate the tornadic nature of simulated supercells; it is found that terrain blocking effects are dominative and that elongating the terrain axis approximately parallel to the propagation vector produced the strongest potential to generate a tornadic supercell thunderstorm. Although the simulated case with the highest mountain produced the most tornadic thunderstorms it is seen that increasing the terrain height alone is not sufficient to make tornadogenesis more probable as more tornadic supercells were simulated with lower heights compared to moderate terrain heights.