Investigating Hurricane Convection in HWRF

Accurate hurricane forecasts are crucial in giving communities ample time to prepare and help protect lives and property. The ability to accurately predict hurricane behavior often relies heavily on guidance from high-resolution numerical weather models. One such model is the Hurricane Weather Research and Forecasting Model (HWRF). Each year, a new version of HWRF is subject to extensive testing and evaluation to assess its ability to capture hurricane characteristics. The parameters that receive the most attention include hurricane intensity, track, and, more recently, size. However, we can only aim to capture hurricane evolution to the extent that the model accurately reproduces convective processes. In this work we present an initial evaluation of HWRF based on convective statistics and characteristics, focusing on cases of prominent hurricanes in recent years. We investigate the spatial distribution and magnitude of derived radar reflectivity, vertical velocity, and other convective properties. We also use contoured frequency by altitude diagrams (CFADs) and related convective diagnostics to assess the quality of HWRF hurricane guidance. By better quantifying the ability of HWRF to represent hurricane convection, this work can help identify potential future improvements to HWRF while expanding our understanding of forecasted hurricane convection.