2026/06/03 by Jasen D. Greco, Casey E. Davenport · 1 voice
Earth and Planetary Sciences · Environmental Science · Physics and Astronomy · #Lightning and Electromagnetic Phenomena #Meteorological Phenomena and Simulations #Wind and Air Flow Studies
paper · pdf · doi:10.15191/nwajom.2026.1411
openalex publication_date 2026/06/03 · openalex created_date 2026/06/04 · openalex updated_date 2026/06/26
Synoptic-scale frontal boundaries are understood to be a source of intensification and severe weather production for supercell thunderstorms, owing to associated convergence and baroclinically generated horizontal vorticity that can be tilted into the updraft. However, boundaries also are associated with strong spatial gradients in environmental quantities; separately, these variations also are known to influence storm intensity, longevity, and severe weather production. It is unclear whether the boundary circulation and associated vorticity or the rapid changes in the near-storm environment more significantly influence the known enhancements for supercells near boundaries. Thus, the research presented herein explores the contribution of a rapidly changing background environment consistent with a supercell’s dwell time on a frontal boundary (without the associated convergence or boundary circulation) via idealized simulations, with a long-term goal of understanding and better anticipating supercell behavior near boundaries. The simulations used base-state environments rooted in an observed supercell-stationary boundary event on 29 May 2011. Representative environments were generated from model analyses on the warm-side, cold-side, and on the boundary itself. Idealized model experiments in CM1 tested each of these environments either fixed over time (control simulations), or varying over time via base-state substitution (BSS). Different types of boundary interactions were replicated through changes to the length of the transition between warm, cold, and boundary environments, as well as testing storm initiation on either side of the boundary (i.e., warm-to-cold versus cold-to-warm). While the control simulations indicated that the fixed boundary environment produced the strongest and longest lived supercell, all BSS experiments led to supercell dissipation. Overall, these simulations suggest that the boundary itself (i.e., associated convergence and vorticity) is an important contributor to the maintenance and severe weather production during supercell-boundary interactions. The context of these findings with regards to prior research and implications for operational forecasting also are discussed.