 | This article provides insufficient context for those unfamiliar with the subject.(September 2018) |
A mesoscale convective complex (MCC) is a unique kind of mesoscale convective system which is defined by characteristics observed in infrared satellite imagery. They are long-lived, often form nocturnally, and commonly contain heavy rainfall, wind, hail, lightning, and possibly tornadoes. [1]
A mesoscale convective complex has either an area of cloud top of 100,000 km2 or greater with temperature less than or equal to −32 °C, or an area of cloud top of 50,000 km2 with temperature less than or equal to −52 °C. Size definitions must be met for 6 hours or greater. Its maximum extent is defined as when cloud shield reaches maximum area. Its eccentricity (minor axis/major axis) is greater than or equal to 0.7 at maximum extent.
MCCs commonly develop from the merging of thunderstorms into a squall line which eventually meet the MCC criteria. Furthermore, some MCC formation can be tracked from the plains in Colorado back to the Rocky Mountains. These are called "orogenic" complexes. [2] The characteristics of the meteorological environment that MCCs form in are strong warm air advection into the formation environment by a southerly low-level jet stream (wind maximum), strong moisture advection which increases the relative humidity of the formation environment, convergence of air near the surface, and divergence of air aloft. These conditions are most prominent in the region ahead of an upper level trough. The systems begin in the afternoon as scattered thunderstorms which organize overnight in the presence of wind shear (wind speed and direction changes with height). The probability for severe weather is highest in the early stages of formation, during the afternoon. The MCC persists at its mature and strongest stage overnight and into the early morning in which the rainfall is characterized as stratiform rainfall (rather than convective rainfall which occurs with thunderstorms). Dissipation of the MCC commonly occurs during the morning hours. After dissipation, a remnant mid-level circulation known as a mesoscale convective vortex can initiate another round of thunderstorms later in the day.
The structure of an MCC can be separated into three layers. The low-levels of the MCC near the surface, the mid-levels in the middle of the troposphere, and the upper-levels in the upper-troposphere. Near the surface, the MCC exhibits high pressure, with an outflow boundary, or mesoscale cold front, at its leading edge. This high pressure is caused by the cooling of the air from the evaporation of rainfall (commonly referred to as a cold pool). In the mid-levels (mid-troposphere), the MCC exhibits a cyclonic (counterclockwise in the Northern Hemisphere) rotating low pressure which is warm compared to the surrounding environment (referred to as a warm core). This mid-level circulation is referred to as a Mesoscale Convective Vortex. The upper-levels contain an anti-cyclonic (clockwise in the Northern Hemisphere) rotating high pressure which is a sign of divergence of air. This high pressure is colder relative to its surrounding environment. This divergence at upper-levels and convergence of air at the surface along the cool pool's outflow boundary results in rising motion which aids maintenance of the MCC.
MCCs produce heavy rainfall which can lead to flooding and other hydrological impacts. MCCs are found in the United States during the spring and summer months (warm season), the Indian monsoon region, the West Pacific and throughout Africa and South America. In particular, the heavy rainfall from MCCs accounts for a significant portion of the precipitation during the warm season in the United States. [3] As the warm season progresses, the favorable regions for MCC formation shift from the southern plains of the United States northward. By July and August, the north-central states become the most favorable. [4] The mid-level low pressure areas of MCCs have also been tracked to the origin of some tropical cyclones, and on rare occasions, tropical cyclones can generate MCCs.
One of the most notable MCCs occurred overnight on 19 July 1977, in western Pennsylvania. The MCC resulted in heavy rainfall which led to the disastrous flooding of Johnstown, Pennsylvania. The complex was tracked 96 hours back to South Dakota and produced copious amounts of rain throughout the northern United States before producing up to 12 inches (300 mm) of rain in Johnstown.
A second notable MCC brought destructive straight-line winds to southern Ontario, Upstate New York, Vermont, Massachusetts, Connecticut, and Rhode Island on the morning of 15 July 1995. The MCC produced winds in excess of 160 km/h (100 mph) and was responsible for seven deaths, widespread destruction of forests in the Adirondack and Berkshire Mountains, and over $500 million in property damage. [5]
The formation of large MCCs over the same general area for a large percentage[ when? ] of the nights in April to July 1993 and their tendency to persist well into the next day was a large part of the cause for the flooding in much of the central United States that year.[ citation needed ]
In meteorology, a cyclone is a large air mass that rotates around a strong center of low atmospheric pressure, counterclockwise in the Northern Hemisphere and clockwise in the Southern Hemisphere as viewed from above. Cyclones are characterized by inward-spiraling winds that rotate about a zone of low pressure. The largest low-pressure systems are polar vortices and extratropical cyclones of the largest scale. Warm-core cyclones such as tropical cyclones and subtropical cyclones also lie within the synoptic scale. Mesocyclones, tornadoes, and dust devils lie within the smaller mesoscale. Upper level cyclones can exist without the presence of a surface low, and can pinch off from the base of the tropical upper tropospheric trough during the summer months in the Northern Hemisphere. Cyclones have also been seen on extraterrestrial planets, such as Mars, Jupiter, and Neptune. Cyclogenesis is the process of cyclone formation and intensification. Extratropical cyclones begin as waves in large regions of enhanced mid-latitude temperature contrasts called baroclinic zones. These zones contract and form weather fronts as the cyclonic circulation closes and intensifies. Later in their life cycle, extratropical cyclones occlude as cold air masses undercut the warmer air and become cold core systems. A cyclone's track is guided over the course of its 2 to 6 day life cycle by the steering flow of the subtropical jet stream.
A thunderstorm, also known as an electrical storm or a lightning storm, is a storm characterized by the presence of lightning and its acoustic effect on the Earth's atmosphere, known as thunder. Relatively weak thunderstorms are sometimes called thundershowers. Thunderstorms occur in a type of cloud known as a cumulonimbus. They are usually accompanied by strong winds and often produce heavy rain and sometimes snow, sleet, or hail, but some thunderstorms produce little precipitation or no precipitation at all. Thunderstorms may line up in a series or become a rainband, known as a squall line. Strong or severe thunderstorms include some of the most dangerous weather phenomena, including large hail, strong winds, and tornadoes. Some of the most persistent severe thunderstorms, known as supercells, rotate as do cyclones. While most thunderstorms move with the mean wind flow through the layer of the troposphere that they occupy, vertical wind shear sometimes causes a deviation in their course at a right angle to the wind shear direction.
An anticyclone is a weather phenomenon defined as a large-scale circulation of winds around a central region of high atmospheric pressure, clockwise in the Northern Hemisphere and counterclockwise in the Southern Hemisphere as viewed from above. Effects of surface-based anticyclones include clearing skies as well as cooler, drier air. Fog can also form overnight within a region of higher pressure.
A mesocyclone is a meso-gamma mesoscale region of rotation (vortex), typically around 2 to 6 mi in diameter, most often noticed on radar within thunderstorms. In the northern hemisphere it is usually located in the right rear flank of a supercell, or often on the eastern, or leading, flank of a high-precipitation variety of supercell. The area overlaid by a mesocyclone’s circulation may be several miles (km) wide, but substantially larger than any tornado that may develop within it, and it is within mesocyclones that intense tornadoes form.
A squall is a sudden, sharp increase in wind speed lasting minutes, as opposed to a wind gust, which lasts for only seconds. They are usually associated with active weather, such as rain showers, thunderstorms, or heavy snow. Squalls refer to the increase of the sustained winds over that time interval, as there may be higher gusts during a squall event. They usually occur in a region of strong sinking air or cooling in the mid-atmosphere. These force strong localized upward motions at the leading edge of the region of cooling, which then enhances local downward motions just in its wake.
A squall line, or more accurately a quasi-linear convective system (QLCS), is a line of thunderstorms, often forming along or ahead of a cold front. In the early 20th century, the term was used as a synonym for cold front. Linear thunderstorm structures often contain heavy precipitation, hail, frequent lightning, strong straight-line winds, and occasionally tornadoes or waterspouts. Particularly strong straight-line winds can occur where the linear structure forms into the shape of a bow echo. Tornadoes can occur along waves within a line echo wave pattern (LEWP), where mesoscale low-pressure areas are present. Some bow echoes can grow to become derechos as they move swiftly across a large area. On the back edge of the rainband associated with mature squall lines, a wake low can be present, on very rare occasions associated with a heat burst.
In meteorology, a low-pressure area, low area or low is a region where the atmospheric pressure is lower than that of surrounding locations. Low-pressure areas are commonly associated with inclement weather, while high-pressure areas are associated with lighter winds and clear skies. Winds circle anti-clockwise around lows in the northern hemisphere, and clockwise in the southern hemisphere, due to opposing Coriolis forces. Low-pressure systems form under areas of wind divergence that occur in the upper levels of the atmosphere (aloft). The formation process of a low-pressure area is known as cyclogenesis. In meteorology, atmospheric divergence aloft occurs in two kinds of places:
A derecho is a widespread, long-lived, straight-line wind storm that is associated with a fast-moving group of severe thunderstorms known as a mesoscale convective system.
Cyclogenesis is the development or strengthening of cyclonic circulation in the atmosphere. Cyclogenesis is an umbrella term for at least three different processes, all of which result in the development of some sort of cyclone, and at any size from the microscale to the synoptic scale.
This is a list of meteorology topics. The terms relate to meteorology, the interdisciplinary scientific study of the atmosphere that focuses on weather processes and forecasting.
A rainband is a cloud and precipitation structure associated with an area of rainfall which is significantly elongated. Rainbands can be stratiform or convective, and are generated by differences in temperature. When noted on weather radar imagery, this precipitation elongation is referred to as banded structure. Rainbands within tropical cyclones are curved in orientation. Rainbands of tropical cyclones contain showers and thunderstorms that, together with the eyewall and the eye, constitute a hurricane or tropical storm. The extent of rainbands around a tropical cyclone can help determine the cyclone's intensity.
A mesoscale convective system (MCS) is a complex of thunderstorms that becomes organized on a scale larger than the individual thunderstorms but smaller than extratropical cyclones, and normally persists for several hours or more. A mesoscale convective system's overall cloud and precipitation pattern may be round or linear in shape, and include weather systems such as tropical cyclones, squall lines, lake-effect snow events, polar lows, and mesoscale convective complexes (MCCs), and generally forms near weather fronts. The type that forms during the warm season over land has been noted across North and South America, Europe, and Asia, with a maximum in activity noted during the late afternoon and evening hours.
A ridge or barometric ridge is a term in meteorology describing an elongated area of relatively high atmospheric pressure compared to the surrounding environment, without being a closed circulation. It is associated with an area of maximum anticyclonic curvature of wind flow. The ridge originates in the center of an anticyclone and sandwiched between two low-pressure areas, and the locus of the maximum curvature is called the ridge line. This phenomenon is the opposite of a trough.
Outflow, in meteorology, is air that flows outwards from a storm system. It is associated with ridging, or anticyclonic flow. In the low levels of the troposphere, outflow radiates from thunderstorms in the form of a wedge of rain-cooled air, which is visible as a thin rope-like cloud on weather satellite imagery or a fine line on weather radar imagery. For observers on the ground, a thunderstorm outflow boundary often approaches in otherwise clear skies as a low, thick cloud that brings with it a gust front.
A shortwave or shortwave trough is an embedded kink in the trough / ridge pattern. Its length scale is much smaller than that of and is embedded within longwaves, which are responsible for the largest scale weather systems. Shortwaves may be contained within or found ahead of longwaves and range from the mesoscale to the synoptic scale. Shortwaves are most frequently caused by either a cold pool or an upper level front. Shortwaves are commonly referred to as a vorticity maximum.
An upper tropospheric cyclonic vortex is a vortex, or a circulation with a definable center, that usually moves slowly from east-northeast to west-southwest and is prevalent across Northern Hemisphere's warm season. Its circulations generally do not extend below 6,080 metres (19,950 ft) in altitude, as it is an example of a cold-core low. A weak inverted wave in the easterlies is generally found beneath it, and it may also be associated with broad areas of high-level clouds. Downward development results in an increase of cumulus clouds and the appearance of circulation at ground level. In rare cases, a warm-core cyclone can develop in its associated convective activity, resulting in a tropical cyclone and a weakening and southwest movement of the nearby upper tropospheric cyclonic vortex. Symbiotic relationships can exist between tropical cyclones and the upper level lows in their wake, with the two systems occasionally leading to their mutual strengthening. When they move over land during the warm season, an increase in monsoon rains occurs.
Inflow is the flow of a fluid into a large collection of that fluid. Within meteorology, inflow normally refers to the influx of warmth and moisture from air within the Earth's atmosphere into storm systems. Extratropical cyclones are fed by inflow focused along their cold front and warm fronts. Tropical cyclones require a large inflow of warmth and moisture from warm oceans in order to develop significantly, mainly within the lowest 1 kilometre (0.62 mi) of the atmosphere. Once the flow of warm and moist air is cut off from thunderstorms and their associated tornadoes, normally by the thunderstorm's own rain-cooled outflow boundary, the storms begin to dissipate. Rear inflow jets behind squall lines act to erode the broad rain shield behind the squall line, and accelerate its forward motion.
A mesovortex is a small-scale rotational feature found in a convective storm, such as a quasi-linear convective system, a supercell, or the eyewall of a tropical cyclone. Mesovortices range in diameter from tens of miles to a mile or less and can be immensely intense.
The following is a glossary of tornado terms. It includes scientific as well as selected informal terminology.
This glossary of meteorology is a list of terms and concepts relevant to meteorology and atmospheric science, their sub-disciplines, and related fields.
