An Observational Analysis of Three Extreme Rainfall Episodes of 19–20 July 2016 along the Taihang Mountains in North China

Abstract

Abstract This study examines the synoptic- and mesoscale processes leading to the generation of three extreme rainfall episodes with hourly rates of greater than 100 mm h−1 over the southern, middle, and northern portions of the eastern foothills of Mt. Taihang in North China on 19–20 July 2016. The extreme rainfall episodes took place over the 200–600-m elevation zones in the southern and northern portions but also over the lower elevations in the middle portion of the target region, sequentially during late morning, early evening, and midnight hours. Echo training accounted for the development of a linear convective system in the southern region after the warm and moist air carried by a southeasterly low-level jet (LLJ) was lifted to condensation as moving across Mt. Yuntai. In contrast, two isolated circular-shaped convective clusters, with more robust convective cores in its leading segment, developed in the northern region through steep topographical lifting of moist northeasterly airflow, albeit conditionally less unstable. Extreme rainfall in the middle region developed from the convergence of a moist easterly LLJ with a northerly colder airflow associated with an extratropical cyclogenesis. Results reveal that the LLJs and associated moisture transport, the intensifying cyclone interacting with a southwest vortex and its subsequent northeastward movement, and the slope and orientation of local topography with respect to and the stability of the approaching airflows played different roles in determining the timing and location, the extreme rainfall rates, and convective organizations along the eastern foothills of Mt. Taihang.