Production and Depletion of Supercooled Liquid Water in a Colorado Winter Storm

Abstract

During the 1990 Winter Icing and Storms Project (WISP), a shallow cold front passed through northeastern Colorado, followed by a secondary cold front. A broad high pressure area behind the initial front set up a Denver cyclone circulation within a well-mixed boundary layer, which was capped by a stable, nearly saturated layer of air left in place by the initial cold front. As the secondary cold front passed through the WISP domain, these layers of air were lifted. The lifted boundary layer formed only broken cloud, but the lifted moist layer formed a stratiform cloud that contained high liquid water contents. Cloud characteristics were measured in situ with a research aircraft, and remotely by ground-based radars, microwave radiometers, and a lidar ceilometer. Moderate to severe icing conditions were reported by aircraft flying in the area during the event and also affected the flight of the research aircraft through an increase in drag on the airframe. Liquid water was depleted in portions of the lower stratiform cloud as ice crystals, produced in midlevel clouds embedded in westerly flow, fell into the lower cloud, and quickly rimed to form showers of graupel at the ground. After these midlevel clouds passed over the area, liquid production resumed. Supercooled liquid cloud persisted for 36 h as cloud formed within the surface cold air mass behind the secondary cold front as it entered the Denver area and was lifted over the local terrain. The evolution of weather events is discussed using a variety of datasets, including radar, surface mesonet, balloon-borne soundings, research aircraft, satellite imagery, microwave radiometers, and standard National Weather Service observations. By combining information from these varied sources, processes governing the production and depletion of supercooled liquid from the synoptic to the microscale are examined. The storm is also discussed in terms of its potential for causing moderate to severe aircraft icing. The effect of accreted ice on the research aircraft is described, as are implications of the meteorology for detection and forecasting inflight icing.