Operational advances with quasi-linear convective systems: How far we have come over the past 30 years and where we are headed

Technology within the National Weather Service has advanced tremendously over the past two decades with the implementation of the NEXRAD radars in the early to mid-1990s, new high-resolution radar data in the mid-late 2000s, and the implementation of Dual-Polarization technology over the past couple of years. These radar enhancements allow NWS meteorologists to see even finer details in radar base data, which have aided in continually acquiring new knowledge on the behavior of quasi-linear convective systems (QLCS's).

Even prior to this new technology, researchers have shed light on QLCS evolution from the seminal observational work in the 1950s of Newton, Fujita, Nolen and others to document the structure of “squall lines,” the foundational work of Fujita in the 1970s to identify “bow echoes” and bow echo systems (terms that were commonly used for QLCS's into the mid-1990s), to the most recent numerical modeling work of Trapp, Weisman, Atkins, and Coniglio to name a few. All of this research has aided in our QLCS forecast abilities, our understanding of their dynamical processes and associated observational structures, and in the evolution of our warning techniques. This presentation will provide a brief history from the earliest work to the most advanced ongoing research, as well as a discussion on QLCS warning best practices. The authors will also discuss future work needed to improve forecast and warning operations with QLCS events.