Date of Award
2022
Document Type
Thesis
Degree Name
Master of Science (MS)
Department
Atmospheric and Earth Science
Committee Chair
Kevin R. Knupp
Committee Member
Lawrence D. Carey
Committee Member
John R. Mecikalski
Subject(s)
Severe storms--Forecasting, Mesometeorology, Convection (Meteorology), Doppler radar
Abstract
High-shear, low-CAPE (HSLC) environments present unique operational forecasting challenges during the cool season across the southeastern US. Existing literature has sought to characterize the climatology of HSLC and Quasi-Linear Convective System (QLCS) environments as well as study bow echoes and mesovortices under moderate to large CAPE regimes. This case study investigates a cool season mid-Tennessee Valley severe weather event, where 200-300 J kg-1 of CAPE and 0-1 km shear of 25 m s-1 along with strong low-level forcing resulted in a severe weather event which was difficult to anticipate. Findings of this research suggest that bow echoes and mesovortices depend primarily on the strength and depth of low-level shear, with weak CAPE values not precluding their development or severe weather production.
Recommended Citation
Weiner, Adam, "Case study of the extreme high-shear/low-CAPE, strongly-forced Tennessee Valley QLCS of 12 February 2020" (2022). Theses. 387.
https://louis.uah.edu/uah-theses/387