Rainfall Characteristics of Warm-Season Mesoscale Convective Systems in Southeast Texas

This research examines several mesoscale convective systems (MCS) during the months of May and June of 2019. The primary instrument used to characterize rainfall is a Parsivel optical disdrometer. NASA strategically places these disdrometers to use them for calibration and validation of space-borne precipitation sensors and has recently provided one to Texas A&M Atmospheric Sciences. The initial goal of this research was to develop local tools to effectively manipulate the raw data files from the disdrometer so comparisons and analyses can be made to better understand drop size distributions. This enabled a comparison of rainfall characteristics between four recent local MCS events, both against each other and previously observed systems by disdrometers in the literature in other locations. Differences in rainfall accumulation between a co-located rain gauge and the disdrometer for the cases were analyzed in conjunction with wind speed data to examine possible impact of high winds on the measurements.