The Diurnal Cycle of Precipitation in Radar Observations, Model Forecasts and Maple Nowcasts

We have seen in a recent paper (Surcel et al., 2009) that the diurnal cycle of precipitation over the continental US exhibits some seasonal variability. This is a consequence of the fact that during the summer, precipitation is strongly forced by the diurnal cycle of solar heating and it usually initiates as small scales, while during spring, precipitation occurs at larger scales, being synoptically forced. Surcel et al. (2009) also showed that the ability of a convection parameterized, numerical weather prediction (NWP) model to depict the diurnal cycle of precipitation also varies with season showing more skill during spring.