A Case Study of the Initiation of Parallel Convective Lines Back-Building from the South Side of a Mei-yu Front over Complex Terrain

Parallel back-building convective lines are often observed extending to the southwest of some mesoscale convective systems(MCSs)embedded in the mei-yu front in China.The convective lines with echo training behavior can quickly develop into a stronger convective group of echoes,resulting in locally heavy rainfall within the mei-yu front rainband.The initiation mechanism of the back-building convective lines is still unclear and is studied based on high-resolution numerical simulation of a case that occurred during 27−28 June 2013.In the present case,the new convection along the convective lines was found to be forced by nonuniform interaction between the cold outflow associated with the mei-yu front MCSs and the warm southerly airflow on the south side of the mei-yu front,which both are modified by local terrain.The mei-yu front MCSs evolved from the western to the eastern side of a basin surrounded by several mesoscale mountains and induced cold outflow centered over the eastern part of the basin.The strong southwest airflow ahead of the mei-yu front passed the Nanling Mountains and impacted the cold outflow within the basin.The nonuniform interaction led to the first stage of parallel convective line formation,in which the low mountains along the boundary of the two airflows enhanced the heterogeneity of their interaction.Subsequently,the convective group quickly developed from the first stage convective lines resulted in apparent precipitation cooling that enhanced the cold outflow and made the cold outflow a sharp southward windshift.The enhanced cold outflow pushed the warm southerly airflow southward and impacted the mountains on the southeast side of the basin,where the roughly parallel mountain valleys or gaps play a controlling role in a second stage formation of parallel convective lines.

Analysis of three echo-trainings of a rainstorm in the South China warm region

A rainstorm which occurred between May 22and 23, 2014 in Guangdong Province of the South Chinawarm region was simulated by using the ARW-WRFmodel. Three ＂echo-trainings＂ over the rainstorm centerwere analyzed and the results of both the simulation andobservational analysis showed that this rainstorm processwas composed of three stages. In the first stage, gravitywaves triggered the simultaneous but relatively indepen-dent formation of linearwhich moved toward theconvection and convective cells,northeast through the rain center,thus creating the echo-training. In the second stage, withthe formation of cold outflow, new convective cells werecontinuously created in the southwest and northwest of therain area and then gradually moved to merge into thenortheast rain area, thus forming a new echo-training. Inthe third stage, multiple rain bands above the rain areamoved southeastward and passed through the strongestprecipitation center, thus creating the third echo-training.The model simulation showed that a substantial warmingappeared at 900 hPa before the convective initiation,leading to the formation of a stable layer below 900 hPa,which was the primary cause for the gravity waves thattriggered the multiple convective cells. The multipleconvective cells formed the convective line, followingwhich new convection was formed from the cold outflowin its southwest and northwest directions. The newconvection in the southwest maintained the rain band;however, the new convection in the northwest, combinedwith the rain band of the north, formed a large radarreflectivity area and consequently, a larger MCS.