Animations of Next Generation Radar reflectivity images are used to analyze the evolution of convective and stratiform regions of 13 mesoscale convective systems.

September 8, 1900, began innocently in the seaside town of Galveston, Texas. Even Isaac Cline, resident meteorologist for the U.S. Weather Bureau, failed to grasp the true meaning of the strange deep-sea swells and peculiar winds that greeted the city that morning. Mere hours later, Galveston found itself submerged by a monster hurricane that completely destroyed the town and killed over 6,000 people in what remains the greatest natural disaster in...

The geostrophic system of equations with both the effects of orography and heat contrast corresponding to land-sea distribution is integrated with respect to time by using the spectral method. The computed results show the appearance of reasonable blocking situation and a corresponding double jet stream in the latitudinal distribution of the zonally averaged zonal wind.

Mesoscale convective systems (MCSs) have a large influence on the weather over the central United States during the warm season by generating essential rainfall and severe weather. To gain insight into the predictability of these systems, the precursor environment of several hundred MCSs were thoroughly studied across the U.S. during the warm seasons of 1996-98.

This paper presents a diagnostic study of two models proposed by Betts (1973a). The first was a model for a well-mixed sub-cloud layer capped by a more stable transition layer. The downward heat flux at the base of this transition layer is here estimated from the thermal structure of the layer to be 15-25% of the surface sensible heat flux. The second model was a model for a two layer lapse-rate structure for the cumulus layer. A sensitivity analysis...