Radar-derived storm characteristics and convective diagnostics associated with hourly maximum measured wind gusts around Australia

The data in this record describes various characteristics associated with hourly measured surface wind gusts across various locations in Australia, with these characteristics and data sources described below.

This record provides all data used in the preparation of Brown et al. (2023a), except for lightning data that can be obtained from the World Wide Lightning Location Network archive

Record contents

gust_observations.zip
Within this zip archive, a .csv file is provided for wind gust observations, along with associated storm statistics from radar, and convective diagnostics from a global reanalysis. These data are provided for each of the 20 radar domains listed in Brown et al. (2023a). The .csv files follow the structure: gust_observations_x.csv, where x is the identification number for each radar from the Australian Unified Radar Archive.

station_details.csv
This file provides details on the automatic weather stations that measure the wind gusts, with station identifiers (column=Station_id) consistent between station_details.csv and gust_observations_x.csv.

Table1.pdf 
Descriptions of convective diagnostics from reanalysis, that are provided in gust_observations_x.csv. This table has been extracted from the supplementary information of Brown et al. (2023a), and references in this table can be found therein.

radar_details.pdf 
Taken from Table 1 from Brown et al. (2023a), showing the details of radars used here for storm statistics in gust_observations_x.csv.

Fig1.jpeg
Taken from from Brown et al. (2023a), showing a map of the radar domains used here for storm statistics in gust_observations_x.csv.

Wind gust data

Measured wind gusts here represent a 3-second average wind speed, at a height of 10 m above ground level. We also provide some derived quantities from the gust data (see table below). Gust data is provided by the Australian Bureau of Meteorology, from 204 automatic weather stations (station_details.csv), chosen to be within 100 km of a weather radar with sufficient archived data. These data are originally provided by the Bureau of Meteorology at 1-minute frequency, representing a maximum over a 1-minute interval, but are resampled in this record to hourly frequency, for comparisons with other hourly data below (see Brown et al. (2023a) for details of this resampling). Note that any reuse of this data should properly acknowledge the Australian Bureau of Meteorology.

Radar data

Radar data is obtained by the Australian Unified Radar Archive (AURA), produced from operational weather radar within the Australian Bureau of Meteorology network. The level1b data used here is available from the AURA dataset on the Australian NCI under a CC4-BY-NC licence from https://dx.doi.org/10.25914/5f4c85732ee80. Various properties derived from radar reflectivity and Doppler velocity data is reported here in association with the wind gust observations. These properties are only reported if there is a storm object within 10 km and 10 minutes of the gust location (see Brown et al. (2023a) for storm object definition). Radar properties are described in the table below.

Environmental data

Various convective diagnostics are associated with wind gust observations, representing the convective environment and large-scale wind profile. These diagnostics are derived from a combination of pressure-level and surface-level ERA5 data (Hersbach et al. 2020), which is provided at hourly intervals on a 0.25-degree latitude-longitude grid, hosted on the Australian NCI (http:// dx.doi.org/10.25914/5fb115b82e2ba). Details on these convective diagnostics are provided in Brown et al. (2023a), and in Table1.pdf as provided in this record.

Column descriptions

The following table provides descriptions of columns of gust_observations_x.csv

Column name
Description

dt_utc
Time of the measured wind gust, from the automatic weather station data (YYYY-MM-DD HH:MM:SS UTC)

Station_id
Identification number of the weather station that measured the gust. See station_details.csv for details of each station

Wind_gust_observed
The measured wind gust speed (m/s)

Peak_to_mean_wind_gust_ratio
Ratio of the measured wind gust to the 4-hour mean at that station (with the window centred on the gust time)

SCW
Is the measured gust a severe convective wind event?
0: Gust is either less than 25 m/s, does not have a storm object within 10 km, or has a peak-to-mean wind gust ratio less than 2.
1: Gust is greater than 25 m/s, has a storm object within 10 km, and has a peak-to-mean wind gust ratio greater than 2.

Radar_id
Radar identification number (see radar_details.pdf)

Storm_speed
Translational speed of the parent storm object (m/s). Only defined if Storm_in10km=1

Storm_angle
Angle of parent storm object movement. In units of degrees from N. Only defined if Storm_in10km=1

Parent_storm_class
The type of parent storm associated with a gust. Only defined if Storm_in10km=1. Possible types are:
"Non-linear"
"Linear"
"Cellular"
"Cell cluster"
"Supercellular"
"Embedded supercell"
See Brown et al. (2023a) for classification details

Storm_in10km
Is there a radar-derived storm object within 10 km of the gust, observed no more than 10 minutes prior to the gust?
0: No
1: Yes
See Brown et al. (2023a) for a definition of "storm object"

Major_axis_length
The length of the major axis of an ellipse fitted to the parent storm object (km). Only defined if Storm_in10km=1

Minor_axis_length
The length of the minor axis of an ellipse fitted to the parent storm object (km). Only defined if Storm_in10km=1

Local_reflectivity_maxima
Number of local reflectivity maxima within the parent storm object. Only defined if Storm_in10km=1

Maximum_storm_altitude
The maximum height of the parent storm radar reflectivity object (km). Only defined if Storm_in10km=1

Azimuthal_shear
Azimuthal shear of the parent storm object derived from radar data (s-1 x 1000). Only defined if Storm_in10km=1. See Brown et al (2023a) for a discussion of azimuthal shear and processing applied to this quantity here.

ERA5_time
Time of the ERA5 environmental data that is associated with the measured gust, corresponding to the closest previous hour (YYYY-MM-DD HH:MM:SS UTC).

ERA5_latitude
Location of closest ERA5 (land) grid point to measured gust, in degrees of latitude

ERA5_longitude
Location of closest ERA5 (land) grid point to measured gust, in degrees of longitude

Environmental_cluster
Event type, based on statistical clustering of environmental data (Brown et al. 2023b)
0: Strong background wind cluster
1: Steep lapse rate cluster
2: High moisture cluster

Umean06
Convective diagnostic derived from ERA5 data. See Table1.pdf

Umean01
Convective diagnostic derived from ERA5 data. See Table1.pdf

U10
Convective diagnostic derived from ERA5 data. See Table1.pdf

WindGust10
Convective diagnostic derived from ERA5 data. See Table1.pdf

S06
Convective diagnostic derived from ERA5 data. See Table1.pdf

EBWD
Convective diagnostic derived from ERA5 data. See Table1.pdf

Umeanwindinf
Convective diagnostic derived from ERA5 data. See Table1.pdf

SRHE
Convective diagnostic derived from ERA5 data. See Table1.pdf

SRH06
Convective diagnostic derived from ERA5 data. See Table1.pdf

DMI
Convective diagnostic derived from ERA5 data. See Table1.pdf

LR_subcloud
Convective diagnostic derived from ERA5 data. See Table1.pdf

LR_freezing
Convective diagnostic derived from ERA5 data. See Table1.pdf

LR03
Convective diagnostic derived from ERA5 data. See Table1.pdf

LR13
Convective diagnostic derived from ERA5 data. See Table1.pdf

WMSI
Convective diagnostic derived from ERA5 data. See Table1.pdf

BDSD
Convective diagnostic derived from ERA5 data. See Table1.pdf

ConvGust_wet
Convective diagnostic derived from ERA5 data. See Table1.pdf

ConvGust_dry
Convective diagnostic derived from ERA5 data. See Table1.pdf

GUSTEX
Convective diagnostic derived from ERA5 data. See Table1.pdf

DmgWind
Convective diagnostic derived from ERA5 data. See Table1.pdf

DmgWind_fixed
Convective diagnostic derived from ERA5 data. See Table1.pdf

DCAPE
Convective diagnostic derived from ERA5 data. See Table1.pdf

WMPI
Convective diagnostic derived from ERA5 data. See Table1.pdf

WINDEX
Convective diagnostic derived from ERA5 data. See Table1.pdf

DowndraftTemp
Convective diagnostic derived from ERA5 data. See Table1.pdf

ThetaeDiff
Convective diagnostic derived from ERA5 data. See Table1.pdf

TEI
Convective diagnostic derived from ERA5 data. See Table1.pdf

WNDG
Convective diagnostic derived from ERA5 data. See Table1.pdf

DCP
Convective diagnostic derived from ERA5 data. See Table1.pdf

SCP
Convective diagnostic derived from ERA5 data. See Table1.pdf

SCP_fixed
Convective diagnostic derived from ERA5 data. See Table1.pdf

SHERB
Convective diagnostic derived from ERA5 data. See Table1.pdf

SHERBE
Convective diagnostic derived from ERA5 data. See Table1.pdf

SWEAT
Convective diagnostic derived from ERA5 data. See Table1.pdf

MUCS6
Convective diagnostic derived from ERA5 data. See Table1.pdf

MLCS6
Convective diagnostic derived from ERA5 data. See Table1.pdf

EffCS6
Convective diagnostic derived from ERA5 data. See Table1.pdf

T_Totals
Convective diagnostic derived from ERA5 data. See Table1.pdf

K_Index
Convective diagnostic derived from ERA5 data. See Table1.pdf

Eff_CAPE
Convective diagnostic derived from ERA5 data. See Table1.pdf

Eff_LCL
Convective diagnostic derived from ERA5 data. See Table1.pdf

MLCAPE
Convective diagnostic derived from ERA5 data. See Table1.pdf

ML_LCL
Convective diagnostic derived from ERA5 data. See Table1.pdf

MUCAPE
Convective diagnostic derived from ERA5 data. See Table1.pdf

MU_LCL
Convective diagnostic derived from ERA5 data. See Table1.pdf

Qmean01
Convective diagnostic derived from ERA5 data. See Table1.pdf

Qmean06
Convective diagnostic derived from ERA5 data. See Table1.pdf

References

Brown, A., Dowdy, A., Lane, T. P., & Hitchcock, S. (2023b). Types of Severe Convective Wind Events in Eastern Australia. Monthly Weather Review, 151(2), 419–448. https://doi.org/10.1175/MWR-D-22-0096.1

Brown, A., A. Dowdy, T. P. Lane, & Hitchcock, S. (2023a). Long-term observational characteristics of different severe convective wind types around Australia. Wea. Forecasting, https://doi.org/10.1175/WAF-D-23-0069.1, in press.

Hersbach, H., Bell, B., Berrisford, P., Hirahara, S., Horányi, A., Muñoz‐Sabater, J., et al. (2020). The ERA5 Global Reanalysis. Quarterly Journal of the Royal Meteorological Society, qj.3803. https://doi.org/10.1002/qj.3803