WIND STRATIFICATION NEAR A LARGE THUNDERSTORM.

Automated extraction and classification of thunderstorm and non-thunderstorm wind data for extreme-value analysis

Design wind loads are partly based on extreme value analyses of historical wind data, and limitations on the quantity and spatial resolution of wind data pose a significant challenge in such analyses. A promising source of recent wind speed and direction data is the automated surface observing system (ASOS), a network of about 1000 standardized US weather stations. To facilitate the use of ASOS...

Transient Thunderstorm Downbursts and Their Effects on Wind Turbines

The International Electrotechnical Commission (IEC) Standard 61400-1 for the design of wind turbines does not explicitly address site-specific conditions associated with anomalous atmospheric events or conditions. Examples of off-standard atmospheric conditions include thunderstorm downbursts, hurricanes, tornadoes, low-level jets, etc. The simulation of thunderstorm downbursts and associated l...

Rising Variability in Thunderstorm-Related U.S. Losses as a Reflection of Changes in Large-Scale Thunderstorm Forcing*

Thunderstorm-related normalized economic and insured losses in the United States east of the Rockies from the period 1970–2009 (March–September) exhibit higher peaks and greater variability in the last two decades than in the preceding two decades. To remove the bias from increasingly detected losses over time due to newly built-up locations, only large events that incurred normalized losses of...

A severe thunderstorm climatology for Australia and associated thunderstorm environments

Relative effects of wind stress curl, topography, and stratification on large-scale circulation in Lake Michigan

[1] This paper uses the results from two multiseason numerical model simulations of Lake Michigan hydrodynamics to examine the relative effects of wind stress curl, topography, and stratification on large-scale circulation. The multiseason simulations provide a period long enough to encompass the full range of atmospheric and thermal conditions that can occur in the lake. The purpose of this pa...