P2.18
Thunderstorms of the Mt. Everest Region: Spring 1999, 2000
Kamal Thapa, City University of New York, New York, NY; and E. E. Hindman and Y. N. Rosoff
Thunderstorms are common in the Khumbu region of the eastern Himalaya of Nepal, the location of Mt. Everest. Thunderstorms were observed in the region on 1st, 3rd, 4th May 1999 and also on 5th May 2000 but none were observed on 30th April, 2nd and 5th May 1999 and 11th May 2000. The global mollweide infrared satellite images (53 km, 3-hour interval) for these days were downloaded from the archives at the University of Wisconsin into the Man-computer Data Acquisition System (McIDAS) in the Department's weather station. The cloud-top temperatures were measured in the Khumbu region. Using atmospheric soundings, the cloud-top heights were calculated to see any co-relation between cloud-top heights and occurrences of thunderstorms. On six of the observed days, cloud-top heights were  6.9km; on four of the days thunderstorms were reported, on 2 of the days no thunderstorms were reported. On the other two observed days, cloud-top heights were  6.9km and no thunderstorms were reported on either day. These results show the mollweide images are helpful in detecting thunderstorms in the Khumbu region. Recently available Meteosat 5 images (4 km, 0.5-hour interval) will be used to determine whether there were thunderstorms on the two days - with cloud-tops > 6.9 km - during which no storms were reported.
Poster Session 2, Orographic Precipitation/Operational and Numerical Weather Prediction (with Coffee Break)
Wednesday, 19 June 2002, 9:15 AM-11:00 AM
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