Identification

Title

Reproducing the September 2013 record-breaking rainfall over the Colorado Front Range with high-resolution WRF forecasts

Abstract

Four convection-permitting Weather Research and Forecasting Model (WRF) forecasts were produced in an attempt to replicate the record-breaking rainfall across the Colorado Front Range between 1200 UTC 11 September and 1200 UTC 13 September 2013. A nested WRF domain with 4- and 1-km horizontal grid spacings was employed, and sensitivity to initial conditions (ICs) and microphysics (MP) parameterizations was examined. Rainfall forecasts were compared to gridded observations produced by National Weather Service River Forecast Centers and gauge measurements from the Community Collaborative Rain, Hail and Snow Network (CoCoRaHS). All 1-km forecasts produced 48-h rainfall exceeding 250 mm over portions of the Colorado Front Range and were more consistent with observations than the 4-km forecasts. While localized sensitivities to both ICs and MP were noted, systematic differences were not attributable to the varied ICs or MP schemes. At times, the 1-km forecasts produced precipitation structures similar to those observed, but none of the forecasts successfully captured the observed mesoscale evolution of the entire rainfall event. Nonetheless, as all 1-km forecasts produced torrential rainfall over the Colorado Front Range, these forecasts could have been useful guidance for this event.

Resource type

document

Resource locator

Unique resource identifier

code

http://n2t.net/ark:/85065/d7th8npm

codeSpace

Dataset language

eng

Spatial reference system

code identifying the spatial reference system

Classification of spatial data and services

Topic category

geoscientificInformation

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keyword value

Text

originating controlled vocabulary

title

Resource Type

reference date

date type

publication

effective date

2016-01-01T00:00:00Z

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Temporal reference

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End position

Dataset reference date

date type

publication

effective date

2014-04-01T00:00:00Z

Frequency of update

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Conformity

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Use constraints

Copyright 2014 American Meteorological Society (AMS). Permission to use figures, tables, and brief excerpts from this work in scientific and educational works is hereby granted provided that the source is acknowledged. Any use of material in this work that is determined to be "fair use" under Section 107 or that satisfies the conditions specified in Section 108 of the U.S. Copyright Law (17 USC, as revised by P.L. 94-553) does not require the Society's permission. Republication, systematic reproduction, posting in electronic form on servers, or other uses of this material, except as exempted by the above statements, requires written permission or license from the AMS. Additional details are provided in the AMS Copyright Policies, available from the AMS at 617-227-2425 or amspubs@ametsoc.org. Permission to place a copy of this work on this server has been provided by the AMS. The AMS does not guarantee that the copy provided here is an accurate copy of the published work.

Limitations on public access

None

Responsible organisations

Responsible party

contact position

OpenSky Support

organisation name

UCAR/NCAR - Library

full postal address

PO Box 3000

Boulder

80307-3000

email address

opensky@ucar.edu

web address

http://opensky.ucar.edu/

name: homepage

responsible party role

pointOfContact

Metadata on metadata

Metadata point of contact