Precipitation formation in wintertime orographic clouds. Part I: Environmental conditions and cloud characteristics

Cloud seeding of wintertime orographic clouds in the western United States has been attempted to enhance snow production and snowpack. Due to the scarcity of long-term, high-resolution cloud and precipitation observations over complex terrain, few studies have explored variations in orographic snowfall amounts by comparing environmental conditions and cloud characteristics with surface snowfall distribution and quantity. This study analyzes the environmental conditions and cloud characteristics in relation to surface snowfall patterns for the 24 snowfall events observed during the 2017 Seeded and Natural Orographic Wintertime Clouds: The Idaho Experiment (SNOWIE). The investigation aims to understand: 1) What is the influence, if any, of wind, turbulence, and updraft strength on snowfall amounts, rates, and distribution? 2) What is the relationship, if any, of cloud properties and precipitation-forming effectiveness? and 3) Can cloud seeding modify controlling cloud characteristics sufficiently to increase precipitation in otherwise inefficient orographic clouds? The analysis over a 7200-km 2 observational domain revealed that the accumulated liquid-equivalent snowfall was <0.9 × 10 7 m 3 and snowfall rates were <0.45 mm h −1 for about half of the events. Low snowfall events were characterized by cloud-top temperatures >−20°C, fewer larger droplets, higher liquid water content, and lower ice water content compared to the other events. Cases with minimal background natural snowfall also permitted radar observation of seeding lines. In these cases, cloud seeding was mainly responsible for snowfall. The amount of silver iodide (AgI) released during cloud seeding did not correlate well with snowfall amount and rate.