A Climatology of Sounding-Derived Parameters for Deep, Moist Convection in Europe

A climatology of sounding-derived parameters associated with deep, moist convection is developed using upper-air observations from Europe. The sounding data between 1980 and 2015 were extracted for 150 European sites for 00 UTC and 12 UTC. For each sounding, 55 parameters typically used to characterize deep, moist convection (e.g., CAPE, CIN, LCL, 0–6-km shear) were calculated using SHARPpy (Halbert et al. 2015). Each sounding was then categorized, using severe-weather reports from the European Severe Weather Database, as representative for tornadoes, large hail (>2 cm) and severe wind (>25 m s^-1) based on different proximity criteria. Following Potvin et al. (2010), statistical tests were used to analyze the sensitivity of the parameter distributions to spatial and temporal proximity criteria. The optimal proximity criteria were then used to generate the distributions of sounding parameters. In addition, to understand how the ingredients for deep, moist convection are brought together for different regions of Europe, the annual cycles for CAPE vs. 0–6-km shear and low-level mixing ratio vs. 700–500-hPa lapse rate were analyzed.