Tropospheric Static Stability and Central North American Growing Season Rainfall

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Abstract
This study investigates the relation between tropospheric static stability and central North American growing season (May–August) rainfall for the highly contrasting years of 1975. 1976, and 1979. It uses two extensive sets of meteorological data (individual rawinsonde soundings for 38 stations; hourly rainfall totals for 854–944 locations) for the region extending from the Rocky to the Appalachian Mountains and from the Gulf Coast to approximately 55°N in Canada. The major objectives are to: (i) ascertain which of the many available methods of parameterizing static stability are most strongly related to the above (predominantly convective) rainfall; and (ii) quantify the rainfall variance fraction explained by static stability alone, as opposed to other atmospheric processes/conditions. Forty static stability indices and related thermodynamic parameters (SSITPs) are treated. The results pertaining to objective (i) are definitive and those concerning (ii) are encouraging. The SSITPs that correlat... Abstract This study investigates the relation between tropospheric static stability and central North American growing season (May–August) rainfall for the highly contrasting years of 1975. 1976, and 1979. It uses two extensive sets of meteorological data (individual rawinsonde soundings for 38 stations; hourly rainfall totals for 854–944 locations) for the region extending from the Rocky to the Appalachian Mountains and from the Gulf Coast to approximately 55°N in Canada. The major objectives are to: (i) ascertain which of the many available methods of parameterizing static stability are most strongly related to the above (predominantly convective) rainfall; and (ii) quantify the rainfall variance fraction explained by static stability alone, as opposed to other atmospheric processes/conditions. Forty static stability indices and related thermodynamic parameters (SSITPs) are treated. The results pertaining to objective (i) are definitive and those concerning (ii) are encouraging. The SSITPs that correlat...

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