Rocky Mountain summer convective activity under various flow regimes

It has been observed that thunderstorms in the Rocky Mountains have preferred locations in which to form. These regions vary somewhat depending on the prevailing wind direction. We are examining the physical mechanisms behind these preferred locations using the three-dimensional non-hydrostatic model created by Clark and Hall.

The average stability and moisture conditions associated with three flow regimes, which have been called southwest, northwest and curving southerly, will be presented. We will discuss the cloud and precipitation regimes generated by the model initialized by single soundings which are representative of each of these three regimes. The sensitivity of the model simulation to such mechanisms as surface fluxes of heat and moisture, CAPE, CIN and microphysics will be considered. Future work will attempt to find differences in convective storm generation and subsequent development between situations where MCS develop near the mountains and those where MCS do not develop in this region.