Title: If a raindrop falls in the middle of Haywood County, does it make a splash
1 If a raindrop falls in the middle of Haywood
County, does it make a splash?
- Douglas K. MillerUNCA Atmospheric Sciences
Department
2 If a raindrop falls in the middle of Haywood
County, does it make a splash?
in collaboration with
- Ana Barros, professorDuke University
- Pratt School of Engineering
3 If a raindrop falls in the middle of Haywood
County, does it make a splash?
with the capable assistance of
- John Allard, Chris LaValley, Robbie Munroe, Greg
Cutrell, Anna Wilson
UNCA student researchers
4Basic research problem
- How much rain falls at mountain tops?
5Basic research problem
- All our operational gauges in mountainous areas
tend to be located in easy access locations - Roads follow rivers
- Rivers are in valleys (low elevations)
- Note
6Basic research problem
our radar and satellite precipitation estimation
algorithms are generally tuned using observations
located in low elevation regions
Does this cause a bias in our estimates?
7Previous work
- Barros
- Himalayas and the Sierra Madre (Mexico)
- Characterization of the space-time properties of
precipitation variations in tropical mountainous
regions - Characterize the influence of orography on
precipitation processes in tropical mountainous
regions - Elucidate the differences and similarities
between maritime and continental monsoon regions
8The Duke-UNCA study
- Study region Pigeon River Basin
funded by NASA
9The Duke-UNCA study
- Pigeon River Basin - climatology
Courtesy Greg Dobson
10The Duke-UNCA study
- Deployment phase I (Jun Sep 2007)
- Seven gauges
11The Duke-UNCA study
- Deployment phase I (Jun Sep 2007)
- Challenges
- Calibration
- Access
- Stabilizing the gauge
- Vandalism
- Rattlesnakes (and bears?)
- Permission
126
4
2
5
1
3
137
6
4
2
14The Duke-UNCA study
- Deployment phase I (Jun Sep 2007)
Gauge site 4
15The Duke-UNCA study
- Tipping bucket gauge issues
- Under-reporting of rainfall when the rain rate is
too light (evaporation) or too heavy (splashing) - Adding a heater causes under-reporting
http//www.usatoday.com/weather/wtipgage.htm
16The Duke-UNCA study
- Data collection phase (Oct 2007 - ?)
- Summer precipitation data collected at first
three gauge site deployments
176
4
3800 ft
2
0.8 mi
5
4.5 mi
1
5300 ft
3
4.25 mi
6300 ft
18The Duke-UNCA study
- Preliminary results
- 14 September 2007
FXUS62 KGSP 140539 AFDGSP AREA FORECAST
DISCUSSION NATIONAL WEATHER SERVICE
GREENVILLE-SPARTANBURG SC 139 AM EDT FRI SEP 14
2007 .SYNOPSIS... THE REMNANTS OF HUMBERTO WILL
MOVE NORTHEASTWARD AND AFFECT THE FORECAST AREA
TODAY. A COLD FRONT WILL CROSS THE AREA FROM THE
NORTHWEST ON SATURDAY...WITH COOL AND DRY HIGH
PRESSURE SETTLING IN BEHIND IT THROUGH THE EARLY
PART OF NEXT WEEK .
19The Duke-UNCA study
- Preliminary results
- 14 September 2007
- Three precipitation main events
- Record rainfall at AVL
000 SXUS72 KGSP 150649 RERAVL RECORD EVENT
REPORT NATIONAL WEATHER SERVICE
GREENVILLE-SPARTANBURG SC 241 AM EDT SAT SEP 15
2007 ...RECORD DAILY MAXIMUM RAINFALL SET AT
ASHEVILLE... AT THE ASHEVILLE REGIONAL
AIRPORT...ON FRIDAY 3.4 INCHES OF RAIN FELL. THIS
BREAKS THE OLD RECORD OF 2.03 INCHES SET IN
1978. MOORE
20800 pm 13 Sep 2007
211100 pm 13 Sep 2007
22200 am 14 Sep 2007
23500 am 14 Sep 2007
24800 am 14 Sep 2007
251100 am 14 Sep 2007
26200 pm 14 Sep 2007
27500 pm 14 Sep 2007
28-28.6oC 0.01
-24.6oC 0.48
200 am 14 Sep 2007
29-27.1oC 0.51
-36.1oC 0.23
800 am 14 Sep 2007
30-20.1oC T
-29.1oC 0.02
200 pm 14 Sep 2007
31-40.1oC 0.29
-54.1oC 0.26
400 pm 14 Sep 2007
32The Duke-UNCA study
800 am
200 am
200 pm
33The Duke-UNCA study
34-28.6oC 0.01
-24.6oC 0.48
200 am 14 Sep 2007
35-27.1oC 0.51
-36.1oC 0.23
800 am 14 Sep 2007
36-20.1oC T
-29.1oC 0.02
200 pm 14 Sep 2007
37-40.1oC 0.29
-54.1oC 0.26
400 pm 14 Sep 2007
38The Duke-UNCA study
- 14 Sep 2007 event observations
- For a disorganized convective system
- High elevation rain gauges indicate that higher
elevation doesnt necessarily mean more
accumulated precipitation - What about for a larger scale organized system?
39The Duke-UNCA study
- Future Phases (Pigeon River Basin)
- Install new rain gauges in Great Smoky Mntn
National Park - Install meteorological towers (2 and 10 m)
- Flux tower
- Microphysical imaging facility
- Cooperative observation periods
- Tethersonde, radar profiler, lidar
40The Duke-UNCA study
- Acknowledgements
- Boy Scouts - Camp Daniel Boone
- Dan Rogers and Eddie Hollifield
- USDA-National Forest Service
- Linda Randolph
- Waynesville Watershed Management
- Hugh Parrot and Kyle Cook
- National Parks Service
- Dr. Paul Super and Keith Langdon
41The Duke-UNCA study
42The Duke-UNCA study
- Preliminary results
- 14 September 2007
- 800 am (1200 UTC) feature moves 19.263 miles per
hour - 14 minutes to travel between gauge3 and
gauge1,2 - 25 miles between gauge3 and AVL, 78 minutes to
travel between gauge3 and AVL