RT Journal Article
T1 Simulations of a tornadic supercell event in the south of Spain: Sensitivity to initial and boundary conditions and microphysics parameterizations
A1 Bello-Millán, Francisco Javier
A1 Palacios, Julián
A1 Gutiérrez-Castillo, Paloma
A1 Parras-Anguita, Luis
K1 Tornados - Sistemas de alerta
K1 Tornados - España meridional
K1 Microfísica
K1 Tiempo (Meteorología) - Previsión
K1 Meteorología - Observaciones
AB A tornadic supercell near the village of Campillos (Malaga province) occurred on 26 August 2019 with several associated damages. In this study, we analyze the sensitivity of the Weather Research and Forecasting (WRF) model to initial and boundary conditions and microphysics parameterizations when reproducing this particular event. A total of 20 cases were simulated with four initial and boundary conditions (ERA5, GDAS/FNL, GFS, HRES-IFS) and five microphysics parameterizations (WDM6, Goddard, Morrison, Thompson, WSM6). Forecasts are quantitatively compared with 10-min observations at 153 weather stations for the following variables: temperature at 2 m (), relative humidity at 2 m (), wind speed at 10 m () and accumulated precipitation in 3 h (). Similarly, the spatial verification method MODE (Method for Object-Based Diagnostic Evaluation) has been used to evaluate the reproduction of convective storms by high-resolution numerical simulations. Our results indicate that microphysics plays a key role in this event, being more relevant than initial and boundary conditions. In particular, Goddard configuration combined with ERA5 or IFS initial and boundary conditions has shown the best overall performance. Simulation based on Goddard and ERA5 captured features to diagnose the development of severe convection. Therefore, WRF model, with the correct parameter sets, was able to reproduce the environmental conditions for supercell formation. The spatial resolution used in the simulations was appropriate to explicitly generate a supercellular storm, although it was not sufficiently high to resolve the formation of tornadoes. Nevertheless, the model showed signs of an environment favourable to tornadogenesis.
PB Elsevier
YR 2024
FD 2024-01-24
LK https://hdl.handle.net/10630/29681
UL https://hdl.handle.net/10630/29681
LA spa
NO Francisco Javier Bello-Millán, Julián Palacios, Paloma Gutierrez-Castillo, Luis Parras, Simulations of a tornadic supercell event in the south of Spain: Sensitivity to initial and boundary conditions and microphysics parameterizations, Atmospheric Research, Volume 300, 2024, 107262, ISSN 0169-8095, https://doi.org/10.1016/j.atmosres.2024.107262.
NO Funding for open Access charge: Universidad de Málaga / CBUA.
DS RIUMA. Repositorio Institucional de la Universidad de Málaga
RD 19 ene 2026