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A diagnostic study of freezing rain over Guizhou, China, in January 2011
Author(s) -
Deng Difei,
Gao Shouting,
Du Xiaoling,
Wu Wenhui
Publication year - 2011
Publication title -
quarterly journal of the royal meteorological society
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 1.744
H-Index - 143
eISSN - 1477-870X
pISSN - 0035-9009
DOI - 10.1002/qj.981
Subject(s) - freezing rain , radiosonde , climatology , environmental science , advection , warm front , precipitation , cold front , frontogenesis , snow , storm , atmospheric sciences , geostrophic wind , meteorology , geology , mesoscale meteorology , geography , physics , thermodynamics
In early January 2011, southern China experienced another severe wintertime storm as in the winter of 2008. The storm consisted of a narrow east‐west‐oriented freezing rain band over central Guizhou with an extensive area of snow to the north and a rain swath to the south. This study investigates this event using conventional surface and radiosonde data as well as final (FNL) analyses data from the US National Center for Atmospheric Research/National Centers for Environmental Prediction(NCAR/NCEP). The results show that forcing by geostrophic and diabatic heating built up a positive direct secondary circulation perpendicular to the quasi‐stationary front beneath 700 hPa to maintain the surface cold layer and warm layer aloft through surface cold advection and warm advection aloft. In addition, turbulence induced by strong wind shear in the middle and lower stratiform clouds with a low concentration of ice nuclei plays an important role in the growth of cloud drops and the enhancement of supercool raindrop precipitation over Guizhou. Copyright © 2011 Royal Meteorological Society