The June 2010 Oklahoma City Flood: Insights into Urban Hydromeoteorological Processes using Precipitable Water Analysis and Dual-polarization Radar Data

Recently documented urban flooding in the United States (US) and globally has highlighted the need for more research on the unique interplay between hydrometeorology and the built environment. Current and future rainstorms may overwhelm current stormwater management and planning frameworks. Building upon previous literature, we have conducted a synergistic study to analyze hydrometeorological aspects of major flood events in the US. Primary datasets include soundings, climatological precititable water (PW) distributions, and an array of radar-based products, including the new dual polarization radar. A major finding of this work is that major urban flood events are associated with extremely anomalous precipitable water values, many of which exceeded the 99th percentile compared to climatology. We also present preliminary results from a 2010 case study on how gage-biased mosaiced radar, single-radar 88D, and dual-polarization data characterize an observed urban flood event.