Rapid-Update Radar Observations of Downbursts Occurring within an Intense Multicell Thunderstorm on 14 June 2011

Abstract

Abstract On 14 June 2011, an intense multicell thunderstorm produced one nonsevere and three severe downbursts within 35 km of the rapid-update, S-band phased array radar (PAR) at the National Weather Radar Testbed in Norman, Oklahoma, and the nearby polarimetric research Weather Surveillance Radar 1988-Doppler (KOUN). Data collected from these radars provided the opportunity to conduct a quantitative analysis of downburst precursor signature evolution depicted by 1-min PAR data and the associated evolution of differential reflectivity ZDR depicted by 5-min KOUN data. Precursors analyzed included descent of the reflectivity core, evolution of the magnitude and size of midlevel convergence (i.e., number of bins), and descending “troughs” of ZDR. The four downbursts exhibited midlevel convergence that rapidly increased to peak magnitude as the reflectivity core (65-dBZ isosurface) bottom and top descended. The ZDR troughs seen in the 5-min KOUN data appeared to descend along with the core bottom. Midlevel convergence size increased to a peak value and decreased as the reflectivity core descended in the three severe downbursts. In contrast, midlevel convergence size exhibited little change in the nonsevere downburst. The time scale of trends seen in the PAR data was 11 min or less and happened several minutes prior to each downburst’s maximum intensity. These results point to the importance of 1-min volumetric data in effectively resolving the evolution of downburst precursors, which could be beneficial to forecast operations.