Improved forecasts of atmospheric rivers through systematic reconnaissance, better modelling, and insights on conversion of rain to flooding
1.
Zhu, Y. & Newell, R. E. A proposed algorithm for moisture fluxes from atmospheric rivers. Mon. Weather Rev. 126, 725–735 (1998).
Article Google Scholar
2.
Ralph, F. M., Dettinger, M. D., Cairns, M. M., Galarneau, T. J. & Eylander, J. Defining “Atmospheric River”: how the glossary of meteorology helped resolve a debate. Bull. Am. Meteor. Soc 99, 837–839 (2018). This article provides the definition of an atmospheric river.
Article Google Scholar
3.
Ralph, F. M. et al. (eds) In Atmospheric Rivers p. 286 (Springer, 2020).
4.
Ralph, F. M., Neiman, P. J. & Rotunno, R. Dropsonde observations in low‐level jets over the Northeastern Pacific Ocean from CALJET‐1998 and PACJET‐2001: mean vertical‐profile and atmospheric‐river characteristics. Mon. Weather Rev. 133, 889–910 (2005).
Article Google Scholar
5.
Browning, K. A. & Pardoe, C. W. Structure of low-level jet streams ahead of mid-latitude cold fronts. Quart. J. Roy. Meteor. Soc. 99, 619–638 (1973).
Article Google Scholar
6.
Sodemann, H. & Stohl, A. Moisture origin and meridional transport in atmospheric rivers and their association with multiple cyclones. Monthly Weather Rev. 141, 2850–2868 (2013).
Article Google Scholar
7.
Ralph, F. M. et al. Dropsonde observations of total integrated water vapor transport within North Pacific atmospheric rivers. J. Hydrometeor. 18, 2577–2596 (2017).
Article Google Scholar
8.
Browning, K. A. Conceptual models of precipitation systems. Weather Forecasting 1, 23–41 (1986).
Article Google Scholar
9.
Wernli, H. & Davies, H. C. A Lagrangian-based analysis of extratropical cyclones. I: the method and some applications. Quart. J. Roy. Meteor. Soc. 123, 467–489 (1997).
Article Google Scholar
10.
Madonna, E., Wernli, H., Joos, H. & Martius, O. Warm conveyor belts in the ERA-Interim dataset (1979–2010). Part I: climatology and potential vorticity evolution. J. Climate 27, 3–26 (2014).
Article Google Scholar
11.
Sodemann, H. et al. (eds) In Atmospheric Rivers p. 286 (Springer, 2020).
12.
Doyle, J. D., Amerault, C., Reynolds, C. A. & Reinecke, P. A. Initial condition sensitivity and predictability of a severe extratropical cyclone using a moist adjoint. Monthly Weather Rev. 142, 320–342 (2014).
Article Google Scholar
13.
Schäfler, A. & Harnisch, F. Impact of the inflow moisture on the evolution of a warm conveyor belt. Quart. J. Roy. Meteor. Soc. 141, 299–310 (2015).
Article Google Scholar
14.
Rodwell, M. J., Richardson, D. S., Parsons, D. B. & Wernli, H. Flow-dependent reliability: a path to more skillful ensemble forecasts. Bull. Am. Meteor. Soc. 99, 1015–1026 (2018).
Article Google Scholar
15.
Lavers, D. A. et al. Winter floods in Britain are connected to atmospheric rivers. Geophys. Res. Lett. 38, L23803 (2011).
Article Google Scholar
16.
Lavers, D. A. & Villarini, G. The nexus between atmospheric rivers and extreme precipitation across Europe. Geophys. Res. Lett. 40, 3259–3264 (2013).
Article Google Scholar
17.
Ramos, A. M., Trigo, R. M., Liberato, M. L. & Tomé, R. Daily precipitation extreme events in the Iberian Peninsula and its association with atmospheric rivers. J. Hydrometeor. 16, 579–597 (2015).
Article Google Scholar
18.
Ralph, F. M. et al. Flooding on California’s Russian River: role of atmospheric rivers. Geophys. Res. Lett. 33, L13801 (2006).
Article Google Scholar
19.
Neiman, P. J., Schick, L. J., Ralph, F. M., Hughes, M. & Wick, G. A. Flooding in western Washington: the connection to atmospheric rivers. J. Hydrometeor. 12, 1337–1358 (2011).
Article Google Scholar
20.
Viale, M. & Nunez, M. N. Climatology of winter orographic precipitation over the subtropical central Andes and associated synoptic and regional characteristics. J. Hydrometeor. 12, 481–507 (2011).
Article Google Scholar
21.
Kingston, D. G., Lavers, D. A. & Hannah, D. M. Floods in the Southern Alps of New Zealand: the importance of atmospheric rivers. Hydrol. Process. 30, 5063–5070 (2016).
Article Google Scholar
22.
Pasquier, J. T., Pfahl, S. & Grams, C. M. Modulation of atmospheric river occurrence and associated precipitation extremes in the North Atlantic Region by European weather regimes. Geophys. Res. Lett. 46, 1014–1023 (2019).
Article Google Scholar
23.
UK Met Office. Record Breaking Rainfall. https://www.metoffice.gov.uk/weather/warnings-and-advice/uk-storm-centre/storm-dennis (UK Met Office, 2020).
24.
Insured losses from Europe’s Storm Victoria (aka Dennis) estimated at €286M: PERILS. Insurance J. https://www.insurancejournal.com/news/international/2020/03/30/562719.htm (2020).
25.
Corringham, T. W., Ralph, F. M., Gershunov, A., Cayan, D. R. & Talbot, C. A. Atmospheric rivers drive flood damages in the western United States. Sci. Adv. 5, eaax4631 (2019).
Article Google Scholar
26.
Waliser, D. & Guan, B. Extreme winds and precipitation during landfall of atmospheric rivers. Nat. Geosci. 10, 179–183 (2017).
CAS Article Google Scholar
27.
Khouakhi, A. & Villarini, G. On the relationship between atmospheric rivers and high sea water levels along the US West Coast. Geophys. Res. Lett. 43, 8815–8822 (2016).
Article Google Scholar
28.
Dettinger, M. D., Ralph, F. M., Das, T., Neiman, P. J. & Cayan, D. Atmospheric rivers, floods, and the water resources of California. Water 3, 445–478 (2011).
Article Google Scholar
29.
Baggett, C. F., Barnes, E. A., Maloney, E. D. & Mundhenk, B. D. Advancing atmospheric river forecasts into subseasonal‐to‐seasonal time scales. Geophys. Res. Lett. 44, 7528–7536 (2017).
Article Google Scholar
30.
DeFlorio, M. J. et al. Global assessment of atmospheric river prediction skill. J. Hydrometeor. 19, 409–426 (2018).
Article Google Scholar
31.
Lavers, D. A., Pappenberger, F., Richardson, D. S. & Zsoter, E. ECMWF Extreme Forecast Index for water vapor transport: a forecast tool for atmospheric rivers and extreme precipitation. Geophys. Res. Lett. 43, 11,852–11,858 (2016).
Google Scholar
32.
Lavers, D. A., Zsoter, E., Richardson, D. S. & Pappenberger, F. An assessment of the ECMWF extreme forecast index for water vapor transport during boreal winter. Weather Forecast. 32, 1667–1674 (2017). This paper describes the ECMWF Extreme Forecast Index product for integrated vapour transport and highlights the increased possible awareness of atmospheric rivers and extreme precipitation.
Article Google Scholar
33.
Nayak, M. A., Villarini, G. & Lavers, D. A. On the skill of numerical weather prediction models to forecast atmospheric rivers over the central United States. Geophys. Res. Lett. 41, 4354–4362 (2014).
Article Google Scholar
34.
Wick, G. A., Neiman, P. J., Ralph, F. M. & Hamill, T. M. Evaluation of forecasts of the water vapor signature of atmospheric rivers in operational numerical weather prediction models. Weather Forecast. 28, 1337–1352 (2013).
Article Google Scholar
35.
Leutbecher, M. & Palmer, T. N. Ensemble forecasting. J. Comput. Phys. 227, 3515–3539 (2008).
Article Google Scholar
36.
Lavers, D. A. et al. The gauging and modeling of rivers in the sky. Geophys. Res. Lett. https://doi.org/10.1029/2018GL079019 (2018).
37.
Rutz, J. J. et al. The atmospheric river tracking method intercomparison project (ARTMIP): quantifying uncertainties in atmospheric river climatology. J. Geophys. Res. 2019, 13777–13802 (2019).
Article Google Scholar
38.
Martin, A. C., Ralph, F. M., Wilson, A., DeHaan, L. & Kawzenuk, B. Rapid cyclogenesis from a mesoscale frontal wave on an atmospheric river: impacts on forecast skill and predictability during atmospheric river landfall. J. Hydrometeor. 20, 1779–1794 (2019).
Article Google Scholar
39.
Bauer, P., Thorpe, A. & Brunet, G. The quiet revolution of numerical weather prediction. Nature 525, 47–55 (2015).
CAS Article Google Scholar
40.
Lavers, D. A. et al. Earlier awareness of extreme winter precipitation across the western Iberian Peninsula. Meteorol. Appl. 25, 622–628 (2018).
41.
Lavers, D., Tsonevsky, I., Richardson, D. & Pappenberger, F. The Extreme Forecast Index for water vapour flux, ECMWF Newslett. 160, https://www.ecmwf.int/en/newsletter/160/news/extreme-forecast-index-water-vapour-flux (2019).
42.
Ralph, F. M. et al. A scale to characterize the strength and impacts of atmospheric rivers. Bull. Am. Meteor. Soc. 100, 269–289 (2019).
Article Google Scholar
43.
Ralph, F. M. et al. West Coast forecast challenges and development of atmospheric river reconnaissance. Bull. Am. Meteor. Soc., 101, E1357–E1377, https://doi.org/10.1175/BAMS-D-19-0183.1 (2020). This paper provides an overview of Atmospheric River Reconnaissance in the northeast Pacific which is key to the ideas proposed for AR Recon Atlantic.
44.
Stone, R. E. et al. Atmospheric river reconnaissance observation impact in the navy global forecast system. Monthly Weather Rev. 148, 763–782 (2020).
Article Google Scholar
45.
Lavers, D. A. et al. Forecast errors and uncertainties in Atmospheric Rivers. Weather Forecast. https://doi.org/10.1175/WAF-D-20-0049.1 (2020).
46.
National Winter Season Operations Plan. Winter Season Reconnaissance https://www.ofcm.gov/publications/nwsop/nwsop2.htm (2019).
47.
Schäfler, A. et al. The North Atlantic Waveguide and Downstream Impact Experiment. Bull. Amer. Meteor. Soc. 99, 1607–1637 (2018). This paper describes the NAWDEX observational campaign in the North Atlantic and AR Recon Atlantic would build on these findings.
Article Google Scholar
48.
Grams, C. M., Magnusson, L. & Madonna, E. An atmospheric dynamics perspective on the amplification and propagation of forecast error in numerical weather prediction models: a case study. Quart. J. R. Meteor. Soc. 144, 2577–2591 (2018).
Article Google Scholar
49.
Schäfler, A. et al. Observation of jet stream winds during NAWDEX and characterization of systematic meteorological analysis errors. Monthly Weather Rev. https://doi.org/10.1175/MWR-D-19-0229.1 (2020).
50.
Rennie, M. & Isaksen, L. Use of Aeolus observations at ECMWF. ECMWF Newslett. 163, https://www.ecmwf.int/en/newsletter/163/news/use-aeolus-observations-ecmwf (2020).
51.
Guan, B., Waliser, D. E., Molotch, N. P., Fetzer, E. J. & Neiman, P. J. Does the Madden–Julian oscillation influence wintertime atmospheric rivers and snowpack in the Sierra Nevada? Monthly Weather Rev. 140, 325–342 (2012).
Article Google Scholar
52.
Ralph, F. M. et al. The impact of a prominent rain shadow on flooding in California’s Santa Cruz mountains: a CALJET case study and sensitivity to the ENSO cycle. J. Hydrometeor. 4, 1243–1264 (2003).
Article Google Scholar
53.
Lavers, D. A., Villarini, G., Allan, R. P., Wood, E. F. & Wade, A. J. The detection of atmospheric rivers in atmospheric reanalyses and their links to British winter floods and the large-scale climatic circulation. J. Geophys. Res. 117, D20106 (2012).
Google Scholar
54.
Jasperse J. et al. Preliminary viability assessment of Lake Mendocino forecast informed reservoir operations. Technical report. http://pubs.er.usgs.gov/publication/70192184 (USGS, 2017). More