Calculated Height Tendencies in Two Southern Hemisphere Blocking and Cyclone Events: The Contribution of Diabatic Heating to Block Intensification

The Zwack–Okossi vorticity tendency equation was used to calculate 500-hPa height tendencies in two intensifying Southern Hemisphere blocking events. The National Centers for Environmental Prediction– National Center for Atmospheric Research gridded reanalyses were used to make each of these calculations. The block intensification period for each event was associated with a deepening surface cyclone during a 48-h period beginning at 1200 UTC 28 July and 1200 UTC 8 August 1986, respectively. These results demonstrate that the diabatic heating forces height rises through the sensible and latent heating terms in these two Southern Hemisphere blocking events. The sensible heating was the larger contributor, second only to (about the same as) the vorticity advection term in the first (second) event. The vorticity advection term has been shown by several studies to be associated with block intensification.