Simulated Effects of Urban Environments on the Dynamics of a Supercell Thunderstorm

The goal of this study is to quantify the impacts of urban morphology on supercell thunderstorm dynamics. The Advanced Research Weather Research and Forecasting (ARW-WRF) model will be used to simulate an isolated supercell storm that traverses parts of Oklahoma. An initial simulation (CTRL) is performed wherein all model representations of urban areas have been removed. Further model runs are conducted in which the land use patterns of various cities are placed within the model domain in or near the path of the supercell. By comparing the simulations with urban areas to CTRL, the effects of the storm passing across different parts of the city or upwind/downwind of the city, as well as the storm lifecycle stage during this interaction, are investigated. These comparisons concentrate on differences in boundary layer characteristics prior to storm formation as well as changes in supercell structure, dynamics and evolution.