A convection-permitting model for the Lake Victoria Basin: evaluation and insight into the mesoscale versus synoptic atmospheric dynamics

Abstract

Aiming for an improved understanding of the different factors that determine the regional climate of the Lake Victoria Basin, the COSMO-CLM regional climate model is set up in a tropical, convection-permitting configuration and is directly nested in a recent reanalysis product (ERA5). The convection-permitting simulation outperforms state-of-the-art climate integrations that rely on convection parametrisations. Yet the domain-averaged model precipitation is larger than in the multi-observational ensemble, but the latter shows large spread. Overestimations of outgoing TOA shortwave and longwave radiation are much reduced compared to the COSMO-CLM CORDEX-Africa integration, but still suggest a general underestimation of the cloud fraction or frequency. Comparing the control with a no-lake simulation, the presence of Lake Victoria implies strong intensification of over-lake rainfall, but it only slightly increases the total domain-averaged precipitation. In addition, the easterly trade winds are shown to largely affect the mesoscale circulation and precipitation patterns. During daytime, fast trades and anabatic slope winds trigger convection at the lee-wind slopes, and subsidence over the basin. Slow trades allow the stationary air to produce spontaneous convective cells and to develop anabatic winds that result in orographic precipitation. During night-time, trade winds curl around the eastern branch of the East African Rift, generating a southerly and northerly evening convergence front entering the Lake Victoria Basin. Thus, our results highlight the key importance of the easterly trade winds and the complex orography in determining the total accumulation and location of precipitation in the Lake Victoria region.