Identification

Title

Factors leading to extreme precipitation on Dominica from tropical storm Erika (2015)

Abstract

Tropical cyclones are generally characterized by strong rotating winds, and yet, the associated rainfall can be equally destructive. Tropical Storm Erika (2015) is an example of such a cyclone whose heavy rainfall south of the storm center was responsible for significant loss of life and property. Tropical Storm Erika was a weak tropical storm in a sheared environment that passed through the Lesser Antilles on 27 August 2015. Radar and rain gauges measured at least a half meter of rainfall on the Commonwealth of Dominica in about 5 h. In this study, an analysis of several observational datasets showed that the combination of a sheared environment, dry northern sector, and mesovortex contributed to the significant storm precipitation. The sheared environment affected the storm structure, causing it to weaken, but also organized convection and precipitation in the region that passed over Dominica. Furthermore, a mesovortex embedded within the storm persisted over Dominica, leading to enhanced rainfall totals. Understanding the factors leading to heavy rainfall for this case is important for future prediction of similar weak, sheared tropical storms passing near mountainous islands.

Resource type

document

Resource locator

Unique resource identifier

code

http://n2t.net/ark:/85065/d7tb19m6

codeSpace

Dataset language

eng

Spatial reference system

code identifying the spatial reference system

Classification of spatial data and services

Topic category

geoscientificInformation

Keywords

Keyword set

keyword value

Text

originating controlled vocabulary

title

Resource Type

reference date

date type

publication

effective date

2016-01-01T00:00:00Z

Geographic location

West bounding longitude

East bounding longitude

North bounding latitude

South bounding latitude

Temporal reference

Temporal extent

Begin position

End position

Dataset reference date

date type

publication

effective date

2018-02-01T00:00:00Z

Frequency of update

Quality and validity

Lineage

Conformity

Data format

name of format

version of format

Constraints related to access and use

Constraint set

Use constraints

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