Analysis of a Heavy Rainfall Event over Beijing During 21-22 July2012 Based on High Resolution Model Analyses and Forecasts

The heaviest rainfall over 61 yr hit Beijing during 21-22 July 2012.Characterized by great rainfall amount and intensity,wide range,and high impact,this record-breaking heavy rainfall caused dozens of deaths and extensive damage.Despite favorable synoptic conditions,operational forecasts underestimated the precipitation amount and were late at predicting the rainfall start time.To gain a better understanding of the performance of mesoscale models,verification of high-resolution forecasts and analyses from the WRFbased BJ-RUCv2.0 model with a horizontal grid spacing of 3 km is carried out.The results show that water vapor is very rich and a quasi-linear precipitation system produces a rather concentrated rain area.Moreover,model forecasts are first verified statistically using equitable threat score and BIAS score.The BJ-RUCv2.0forecasts under-predict the rainfall with southwestward displacement error and time delay of the extreme precipitation.Further quantitative analysis based on the contiguous rain area method indicates that major errors for total precipitation（〉 5 mm h^（-1）） are due to inaccurate precipitation location and pattern,while forecast errors for heavy rainfall（〉 20 mm h^（-1）） mainly come from precipitation intensity.Finally,the possible causes for the poor model performance are discussed through diagnosing large-scale circulation and physical parameters（water vapor flux and instability conditions） of the BJ-RUCv2.0 model output.

Application of FY-2C Cloud Drift Winds in a Mesoscale Numerical Model

Statistical tests and error analysis of cloud drift winds（CDWs） from the FY-2C satellite were made by using radiosonde observations.According to the error characteristics of the CDW,a bias correction using the thermal wind theory was applied in the data quality control.The CDW data were then assimilated into the GRAPES-meso model via the GRAPES-3DVar.A torrential rain event that occurred in northwestern China during 1-2 July 2005 was simulated.The results indicate that the CDW data were mainly distributed above 500 hPa and the largest amount of data were at 250 hPa.The CDW data below 500 hPa had errors in both the wind direction and wind speed,and the distribution of the errors was irregular,so these data were discarded.The CDW data above 500 hPa had smaller errors,which presented a Gaussian distribution,so these data were adopted.With the assimilation of the CDW data,the southwest airflow near the torrential rain area became stronger in the initial wind field,which intensified the moisture transport and water vapor flux convergence,and finally improved the accuracy of the 24-h forecast of the torrential rain in both rain intensity and rain areal coverage.