Surface Mesohighs and Mesolows

Abstract

Through detailed and remarkably insightful analyses of surface data, Tetsuya Theodore Fujita pioneered modern mesoanalysis, unraveling many of the mysteries of severe storms. In this paper Fujita's contributions to the analysis and description of surface pressure features accompanying tornadic storms and squall lines are reviewed. On the scale of individual thunderstorm cells Fujita identified pressure couplets: a mesolow associated with the tornado cyclone and a mesohigh in the adjacent heavy precipitation area to the north. On larger scales, he found that squall lines contain mesohighs associated with the convective line and wake depressions (now generally called wake lows) to the rear of storms. Fujita documented the structure and life cycles of these phenomena using time–to–space conversion of barograph data. Subsequent investigations have borne out many of Fujita's findings of nearly 50 years ago. His analyses of the surface pressure field accompanying tornadic supercells have been validated by later studies, in part because of the advent of mobile mesonetworks. The analyses of squall–line mesohighs and wake lows have been confirmed and extended, particularly by advances in radar observations. These surface pressure features appear to be linked to processes both in the convective line and attendant stratiform precipitation regions, as well as to rear–inflow jets, gravity currents, and gravity waves, but specific roles of each of these phenomena in the formation of mesohighs and wake lows have yet to be fully resolved.

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