Analysis of a Record-breaking Rainfall Event Associated with a Monsoon Coastal Megacity of South China using Multi-source Data

Abstract:

Monsoon coastal cities often suffer from extreme rain-induced flooding and severe hazard. However, the associated physical mechanisms and detailed storm structures are poorly understood due to the lack of high-resolution data. This study presents an analysis of a thunderstorm that produce extreme hourly rainfall (EXHR) of 219 mm over Guangzhou megacity in the southern coast of China using integrated multi-platform observations and a four-dimensional variational Doppler radar analysis system. Results indicate that weak environmental flows and convectively generated weak cold pool facilitate the formation of a quasi-stationary storm, while onshore warm and moist flows in the boundary layer (BL) provide the needed moisture supply. The 219 mm-EXHR is attendant by a shallow meso-γ-scale vortex due to stretching of intense latent heating-induced convergence, which in turn helps organize convective updrafts into its core region. Lightning flash and dual-polarization radar observations reveal active warm-rain (but weak mixed-phase) microphysical processes, with raindrop size distribution (RSD) closer to marine convection. In contrast, another storm develops about 4 hours earlier and only 35 km to the northwest, but with more lightning flashes, higher cloud tops, more graupel and supercooled liquid water content, more continental RSD, little evidence of rotation, and much less rainfall; they are attributable to the presence of larger convective available potential energy resulting from the urban heat island effects and less moisture supply in the BL. These results highlight the importance of using multi-source remote sensing datasets in understanding the microphysical and kinematic structures of EXHR-producing storms.