A Severe Downslope Windstorm and Aircraft Turbulence Event Induced by a Mountain Wave

Abstract

A detailed analysis is presented of the large-scale, mesoscale and turbulent-scale features of a major downslope windstorm event in central Colorado on 11 January 1972. The storm is found to be associated with a moderate amplitude baroclinic disturbance moving across the northwestern United States within an intense zonal current. Optimal conditions for strong mountain wave generation are detectable from sounding data 12?24 h in advance and about 1000 km upstream. The mesoscale structure is dominated by a single quasi-hydrostatic wave of extreme amplitude and variable location, with corresponding variations in the windstorm structure. Severe to extreme aircraft turbulence is observed in a deep boundary layer over the region of strong surface winds and also in a separate mid-tropospheric turbulence zone. Analysis of the latter shows that it originates in a region of intense wave-generated shear and is then carried downstream by the mean flow and upward by the wave motion. Energy generation and dissipation rates of order 1 m2 s?3 are observed. Comparisons of the turbulence features with the theoretical solutions for shearing instability by Tanaka and by Lee and Merkine show fair agreement. Effects of the wave-windstorm-turbulence event on the larger scales are complex, involving both a substantial removal of westerly momentum and a three-dimensional redistribution of mass. Hazards to aircraft from this kind of event are illustrated and discussed. Avoidance by vertical path deviation in found to be impractical.