Research

Speaker: Dr. Dave Parsons - Oklahoma University

The accurate representation of nocturnal mesoscale convective systems (MCSs) is a major challenge for weather and climate modeling. This presentation addresses several questions related to warm season, nocturnal MCSs: Is the frequency of extreme precipitation associated with nocturnal MCS increasing in our changing climate? Can long-lived MCSs modify/trigger Rossby wave packets on the jet stream that impact forecasts downstream? Should simulations in the so-called grey zone (~1 to 5 km) include a scalable convective parameterization to capture MCS-Rossby wave interactions? What unique factors control the longevity of nocturnal MCSs and the occurrence of propagating “warm-season precipitation episodes”?