A 7-Yr Climatology of the Initiation, Decay, and Morphology of Severe Convective Storms during the Warm Season over North China

Abstract

The present work established a 7-yr climatology of the initiation, decay, and morphology of severe convective storms (SCSs) during the warm seasons (May–September) of 2011–18 (except 2014) over North China. This was achieved by using severe weather reports, precipitation observations, and composite Doppler radar reflectivity data. A total of 371 SCSs were identified. SCSs primarily initiated around noon with the highest frequency over the high terrain of Mount Taihang, and they mostly decayed over the plains at night. The storm morphologies were classified into three types of cellular storms (individual cells, clusters of cells, and broken lines), six types of linear systems (convective lines with no stratiform, with trailing stratiform, leading stratiform, parallel stratiform, embedded lines, and bow echoes), and nonlinear systems. Three types of severe convective weather, namely, short-duration heavy rainfall, hail, and thunderstorm high winds, associated with these morphologies were investigated. A total of 1429 morphology samples from the 371 SCSs were found to be responsible for 15 966 severe convective weather reports. Nonlinear systems were the most frequent morphology, followed by clusters of cells. Convective lines with trailing stratiform were the most frequent linear morphology. Linear (nonlinear) systems produced the most short-duration heavy rainfall (hail and thunderstorm high wind) reports. Bow echoes were most efficient in producing both short-duration heavy rainfall and thunderstorm high wind reports whereas broken lines had the highest efficiency for hail production. The results in the present study are helpful for local forecasters to better anticipate the storm types and associated hazardous weather.