Simulation details for: Radar signatures and surface observations of elevated convection associated with damaging surface winds

Identifying radar signatures indicative of damaging surface winds produced
by convection remains a challenge for operational meteorologists,
especially within environments characterized by strong low-level static
stability and convection for which inflow is presumably entirely above the
planetary boundary layer. Numerical model simulations suggest the most
prevalent method through which elevated convection generates damaging
surface winds is via “up-down” trajectories, where a near-surface stable
layer is dynamically lifted and then dropped with little to no connection
to momentum associated with the elevated convection itself. Recently, a
number of unique convective episodes during which damaging surface winds
were produced by apparently elevated convection coincident with mesoscale
gravity waves were identified and cataloged for study. A novel radar
signature indicative of damaging surface winds produced by elevated
convection is introduced through six representative cases. One case is
then explored further via a high-resolution model simulation and related
to the conceptual model of “up-down” trajectories. Understanding the
processes responsible for, and radar signature indicative of, damaging
surface winds produced by gravity-wave coincident convection will help
operational forecasters identify and ultimately warn for a previously
underappreciated phenomenon that poses a threat to lives and property.