4km WRF-ARW Test Simulation

I apologize in advance for all of the acronyms in this post. Actually, no apologies neccessary since this is my own blog ;-) I've attached an animation of a test 4km WRF-ARW simulation of the outbreak of severe convection in the Southeast U.S. on 27 April 2011. The 24-hour run is initialized with 32km data from the North American Regional Reanalysis (NARR) @ 1200 UTC. Parametrizations include: WSM6 MP, NOAH LSM, MYJ PBL, and RRTM radiation. 1km AGL reflectivity (Dbz; fill) and updraft helicity (> 50 m^2/s^2; contour) are displayed. Nothing too fancy that hasn't been done before...just a test.

(click to animate)

4km WRF-ARW forecast sounding for KBHM valid 2300 UTC 27 April 2011

0-1km SRH > 300 m^2/s^2 in the presence of CAPE > 2,000 J/kg. Yowzers!