Characteristics of MCS cold pools in Oklahoma

It is well known that the characteristics and evolution of mesoscale convective systems (MCSs) depends greatly on their production of cold air resulting from changes in the phase of precipitation. It is becoming clear that an accurate depiction of convective-system cold pools is a prerequisite for the accurate prediction of MCSs by high-resolution numerical models. The interaction of the cold pool with the environment has been a topic of much research devoted to MCSs. The environmental conditions that favor MCSs has been studied extensively. However, because of the complexity associated with how cold pools develop and observational limitations, the details of MCS cold pools has received much less attention and has been examined in detail with only a few cases observed during intensive field programs.

This study characterizes MCS cold pools using surface observations obtained by the Oklahoma Mesonet supplemented by the standard surface observing sites. We will use surface data obtained from over 100 warm-season (May through August) MCS events from the nine-year period of 1998 to 2006. The data is available every five minutes from stations spaced 30 to 40 km apart, which affords a detailed statistical climatology of the typical mesoscale characteristics of warm-season MCS cold pools. Particular attention will be paid to cold pool strength, the distance from the cold pool leading edge to the leading edge of the higher reflectivity, and the possible environmental effects of the MCS. We will also compare cold pools associated with different types of MCSs, such as fast-forward propagating and quasi-stationary systems.