Characteristics of Water Vapor Transport during the “7·20” Extraordinary Heavy Rain Process in Zhengzhou City Simulated by the HYSPLIT Model

Water vapor transport is an important foundation and prerequisite for the occurrence of rainstorms. Consequently, the understanding of water vapor transport as well as the sources of water vapor during rainstorm processes should be considered as essential to study the formation mechanism of rainstorms. In this study, the Hybrid Single-Particle Lagrangian Integrated Trajectory (HYSPLIT) model is adopted for backward tracking of water vapor transport trajectories and sources during the “7·20” extraordinary heavy rain process in Zhengzhou City of China that occurred on 20 July 2021. On this basis, the trajectory clustering method is applied to quantitatively analyze the contributions of water vapor sources, aiming to provide a basis for exploring the maintenance mechanism of this extreme rainstorm event. The spatio-temporal characteristics of this rainstorm event show that there are 4 consecutive days with the precipitation reaching or exceeding the rainstorm level across the whole Zhengzhou City, with the daily rainfall amounts at eight national meteorological stations all breaking their respective historical extreme values. The regional-averaged rainfall amount in Zhengzhou City is 527.4 mm, while the maximum accumulated rainfall amount reaches 985.2 mm at Xinmi station and the maximum hourly rainfall amount at Zhengzhou national meteorological station reaches 201.9 mm h−1. The water vapor sources for this rainfall process, ranked in descending order of contribution, are the Western Pacific, inland areas of Northwest China and South China, and South China Sea. The water vapor at lower levels is mainly transported from the Western Pacific and the South China Sea, while those from the inland areas of Northwest China and South China provide a supply of water vapor at upper levels to a certain extent. The water vapor at 950 hPa is mainly sourced from the Western Pacific and South China Sea, accounting for 56% and 44%, respectively. The water vapor at 850 hPa mainly derives from the Western Pacific and the inland areas of South China, contributing 58% and 34% of the total, respectively. The water vapor at 700 hPa mainly comes from the inland areas of Northwest China and South China Sea. Specifically, the water vapor from inland Northwest China contributes 44% of the total, acting as the primary source. The water vapor at 500 hPa is mainly transported from the inland areas of South China and Northwest China, with that from the inland South China (56%) being more prominent. The water vapor at all levels is mainly transported to the rainstorm region through the eastern and southern regions of China from the source areas. Additionally, there are some differences in the water vapor trajectories at a 6 h interval.