TY - JOUR
T1 - A diagnostic study of extreme precipitation over Kerala during August 2018
AU - Vijaya Kumari, K.
AU - Srinivas, Challa Venkata
AU - Basha, Ghouse
AU - Dasari, Hari Prasad
AU - Langodan, Sabique
AU - Venkat Ratnam, M.
AU - Hoteit, Ibrahim
N1 - KAUST Repository Item: Exported on 2020-10-01
Acknowledgements: The authors thank the India Meteorological Department (IMD) for providing access to the automatic weather, rain gauge station data, synoptic weather charts, Doppler weather radar products, and gridded rainfall estimates. The model simulations were carried out on the KAUST Supercomputing Facility. H.P.D. and S.L. acknowledge funding from Saudi ARAMCO. Authors gratefully acknowledge the anonymous reviewers for constructive the suggestions and comments to improve the quality of the paper.
PY - 2019/11/28
Y1 - 2019/11/28
N2 - The state of Kerala, located on the west coast of India, experienced a record 100-year flood that resulted in major landslides from unprecedented prolonged and extremely heavy rainfall (50–480 mm·day−1) during August 1–19, 2018, causing extensive damage and about 500 causalities. Rainfall observations indicate that the heavy rainfall occurred over two spells (August 7–10 and 14–18) in association with an offshore trough, and a depression over the Bay of Bengal (BOB). High-resolution 38-year climatology data (5 km) and the ERA-Interim reanalysis dataset show a strong low-level jet over the Arabian Sea and a depression over the BOB with a southwestward tilt during the heavy rainfall. Very high-resolution (2-km) mesoscale model simulations suggest that this high convective instability due to the strong westerly jet along with the formation of offshore vortex, the transport of mid-tropospheric moisture under the presence of conducive vertical shear of horizontal wind, and transport of mid-tropospheric moisture from the BOB are the major factors (as shown in the schematic diagram) behind the extreme heavy rainfall over Kerala.
AB - The state of Kerala, located on the west coast of India, experienced a record 100-year flood that resulted in major landslides from unprecedented prolonged and extremely heavy rainfall (50–480 mm·day−1) during August 1–19, 2018, causing extensive damage and about 500 causalities. Rainfall observations indicate that the heavy rainfall occurred over two spells (August 7–10 and 14–18) in association with an offshore trough, and a depression over the Bay of Bengal (BOB). High-resolution 38-year climatology data (5 km) and the ERA-Interim reanalysis dataset show a strong low-level jet over the Arabian Sea and a depression over the BOB with a southwestward tilt during the heavy rainfall. Very high-resolution (2-km) mesoscale model simulations suggest that this high convective instability due to the strong westerly jet along with the formation of offshore vortex, the transport of mid-tropospheric moisture under the presence of conducive vertical shear of horizontal wind, and transport of mid-tropospheric moisture from the BOB are the major factors (as shown in the schematic diagram) behind the extreme heavy rainfall over Kerala.
UR - http://hdl.handle.net/10754/660484
UR - https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/abs/10.1002/asl.941
UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/record.url?scp=85075715653&partnerID=8YFLogxK
U2 - 10.1002/asl.941
DO - 10.1002/asl.941
M3 - Article
SN - 1530-261X
VL - 20
JO - Atmospheric Science Letters
JF - Atmospheric Science Letters
IS - 12
ER -