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In this study, our aim is to diagnose how two quasi-linear convective systems (QLCS) are organized so one can determine the possible role of the city of Chicago, IL, USA, in modifying convective precipitation systems. In this Part I of a two-part study, we employ large-scale analyses, radiosonde soundings, surface observations, and Doppler radar data to diagnose the precursor atmospheric circulations that organize the evolution of two mesoscale convective systems and compare those circulations to radar and precipitation. Several multi-scale processes are found that organize and modify convection over the Chicago metroplex. Two sequential quasi-linear convective systems (QLCS #1 and #2) were organized that propagated over Chicago, IL, USA, during an eight-hour period on 5–6 July 2018. The first squall line (QLCS #1) built from the southwest to the northeast while strengthening as it propagated over the city, and the second (QLCS #2) propagated southeastwards and weakened as it passed over the city in association with a polar cold front. The weak upper-level divergence associated with a diffluent flow poleward of an expansive ridge built over and strengthened a low-level trough and confluence zone, triggering QLCS #1. Convective downdrafts from QLCS #1 produced a cold pool that interacted with multiple confluent low-level jets surrounding and focused on the metroplex urban heat island, thus advecting the convection poleward over the metroplex. The heaviest precipitation occurred just south-southeast of Midway Airport, Chicago. Subsequently, a polar cold front propagated into the metroplex, which triggered QLCS #2. However, the descending air above it under the polar jet and residual cold pool from QLCS #1 rapidly dissipated the cold frontal convection. This represents a case study where very active convection built over the metroplex and was likely modified by it, as evidenced in numerical simulations to be described in Part II.
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Convective Density Current Circulations That Modulated Meso-γ Surface Winds near the Yarnell Hill Fire
On 30 June 2013, 19 Granite Mountain Hotshots firefighters were killed fighting a wildfire near Yarnell in the mountains of Central Arizona. They succumbed when the wildfire, driven by erratic winds, blocked their escape route and overran their location. A previous study is extended to simulate and analyze the downscale organization of convective circulations that redirected the wildfire, which started from the scale of the Rossby Wave Breaking over North America to a convective gust front that redirected the wildfire, trapping the firefighters. Five stages are found: Stage I, the initial deep prolonged gust front; Stage II, a front-to-rear jet and its ascending motions that organized high-based convection; Stage III, high-based dry microburst-induced downdrafts organized initially by ascending flow in Stage II that transported mass and entropy to the surface; Stage IV; multiple meso-γ-scale high centers and confluence zones formed that encompassed the firefighters’ location, which established a favorable environment leading to Stage V, canyon-scale circulations formed surrounding the fire. The atmosphere thus transitioned from supporting a deep and long-lived convective density current to elevated dry microbursts with mass and wind outflow into a canyon, redirecting the ongoing wildfire.
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- PAR ID:
- 10414128
- Publisher / Repository:
- DPMI
- Date Published:
- Journal Name:
- Fire
- Volume:
- 6
- Issue:
- 4
- ISSN:
- 2571-6255
- Page Range / eLocation ID:
- 130
- Subject(s) / Keyword(s):
- wildland fire Yarnell Hill Fire (2013) density current microburst front-to-rear jet gust front squall line
- Format(s):
- Medium: X
- Sponsoring Org:
- National Science Foundation
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- Free Publicly Accessible Full Text
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Accepted Manuscript1.0
- Journal Article:
- https://doi.org/10.3390/fire6040130
