A remote-sensing view of a freezing-rain storm

Abstract

A destructive freezing-rain storm on 15 February 1990 was observed intensively with advanced ground-based remote sensors and conventional instruments by the Lake Ontario Winter Storms (LOWS) project in upstate New York. A deep layer of warm, moist, southwesterly flow overran a shallower layer of subfreezing, easterly flow ahead of a surface warm front. Measurements from a scanning Doppler radar, wind profilers, a microwave radiometer, and mobile rawinsondes provided detailed information on the the storm's kinematic and thermodynamic structure and evolution, and allowed its basic microphysical structure to be inferred. -Authors