Production and depletion of supercooled liquid water in a Colorado winter storm

Abstract

During the 1990 Winter Icing and Storms Project (WISP), a shallow cold front passed through northeastern Colorado, followed by a secondary cold front. A broad high pressure area behind the inital front set up Denver cyclone circulation within a well-mixed boundary layer, which was capped by a stable, nearly saturated layer of air left in place by the initial cold front. As the secondary cold front passed through the WISP domain, these layers of air were lifted. The evolution of weather events is discussed using a variety of datasets, including radar, surface mesonet, balloon-borne soundings, research aircraft, satellite imagery, microwave radiometers, and standard National Weather Service observations. By combining information from these varied sources, processes governing the production and depletion of supercooled liquid from the synoptic to the microscale are examined. -from Authors