Synoptic and numerical studies for simulating weather instabilities that affect the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia in winter : the synoptic case study

Abstract EN

A study of a weather phenomenon was carried out, where interaction between middle latitude and tropical waves had occurred.

The goal of this study was to simulate the interaction using a numerical model.

The phenomenon occurred under winter synoptic regime and could lead to wide spread showers over a band that cover most of the kingdom.

A detailed synoptic description of a case, where the interaction had occurred over west Africa, was discussed.

It was shown that the invasion of cold air to the south of 30ºN was a necessary trigger action for such interaction.

In this case a south wind component was developed due to air mass thermal differences.

The developed wind component caused a change in the direction of the subtropical jet from westerly to south-west.

This caused northerly advection of moist air from the Inter Tropical Convergence Zone (ITCZ) where deep convective cells existed.

When a polar frontal system passed through the subtropical region and came in phase with the axis of the advected moisture tongue, rapid development of the system had occurred.

In this case an active cloud band was formed and extended from the tropics to the middle latitude wave