Numerical Study on a Severe Downburst-Producing Thunderstorm on 23 August 2001 in Beijing

A thunderstorm that produced severe wind, heavy rain and hail on 23 August 2001 in Beijing was studied by a three-dimensional cloud model including hail-bin microphysics. This model can provide important information for hail size at the surface, which is not available in hail parameterization cloud models. The results shows that the cloud model, using hail-bin microphysics, could reasonably reflect the storm＇s characteristics such as life cycle, rainfall distribution and the diameter of the hailstones and also can reproduce developing processes of downbursts, where they can then be compared with the observed features of the storm. The downburst formation mechanism was investigated based on the cloud microphysics of the simulated storm and it was found that the downburst was primarily produced by hail-loading and enhanced by cooling processes that were due to hail melting and rain evaporation. The loading and melting of hail played crucial roles in the formation of downbursts within the storm.