Can Cities Modify Organized Thunderstorms? An Idealized Numerical Investigation.

Abstract:

While large cities are known to impact the distribution and intensity of convective precipitation, relatively little is known about the storm-scale processes that are impacted when a thunderstorm interacts with a city. In addition, most previous studies have focused on ordinary thunderstorms with little consideration given to more organized forms of convection.

In this current study, an idealized cloud model is used to simulate the interaction between an organized convective system and a simplified representation of a large city. Analysis of the simulations focuses on the evolution of storm-scale processes before, during, and after the storm passes over the simplified city. Special emphasis is placed on updraft evolution and an analysis of terms from the vertical momentum equation.