Mesoscale air motion and thermodynamics predict heavy hourly U.S. precipitation

Abstract

Predicting heavy precipitation remains scientifically challenging. Here we combine Atmospheric Infrared Sounder (AIRS) temperature and moisture soundings and weather forecast winds to predict the formation of thermodynamic conditions favourable for convection in the hours following satellite overpasses. Here we treat AIRS retrievals as air parcels that are moved adiabatically to generate time-varying fields. Over much of the Central-Eastern Continental U.S. during the non-winter months of 2019–2020, our derived convective available potential energy alone predicts intense precipitation. For hourly precipitation above the all-hours 99.9th percentile, performance is marginally lower than forecasts from a convection permitting model, but similar to the ERA5 reanalysis and substantially better than using the original AIRS soundings. Our results illustrate how mesoscale advection is a major contributor to developing heavy precipitation in the region. Enhancing the full AIRS record as described here would provide an alternative approach to quantify multi-decade trends in heavy precipitation risk. Integrating weather-forecast wind data with satellite-based temperature and moisture soundings leads to better predictions of heavy hourly precipitation over the central and eastern continental United States, according to an analysis of Atmospheric Infrared Sounder (AIRS) data.