CHARACTERISTICS OF MESOSCALE PRECIPITATION PATTERNS

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Abstract
The spatial distribution of rainfall within two mesoscale areas, one a coastal plain, the other hilly, was studied by computing the standard deviation between the daily accumulations at the stations within each area (called the Index of Nonuniformity, INU). Results show that INU over the coastal plain is generally higher than over the hills, although the former decreases during the rainy season in parallel with decreases in sea surface temperature of the nearby Mediterranean Sea. Values of INU are strongly correlated with rainfall amount when enhancement derives from the warm sea or from topographic relief. Multiple regression analysis shows that radiosonde variables often explain much of the INU variance. Accumulations are correlated with wind speed only over the hilly region, lending support to the theory that enhancement of precipitation over sloping terrain is due often to differential cold air advection.