Comparison Between Maritime Tropical (GATE and Barbados) and Continental Mid-Latitude (Montreal) Precipitation Lines

Abstract

Radar and synoptic data for precipitation lines from GATE, Barbados and Montreal are compared. The Montreal and Barbados lines have similar orientation but travel from opposite directions. The GATE lines have orientations almost in an east-to-west direction and the cells of the lines tend to move more nearly along their direction of elongation than the other lines. Both Montreal and GATE lines are appreciably larger than the Barbados lines. The common property of lines at the Barbados and Montreal locations is orientation of the precipitation line at a small angle counterclockwise from the steering wind. The 700, 850 and 1000 mb levels were found to be the steering levels of the Montreal, Barbados and GATE lines, respectively.