The 1993 Superstorm Cold Surge: Frontal Structure, Gap Flow, and Tropical Impact

Abstract

In the wake of the eastern United States cyclone of 12–14 March 1993, a cold surge, originating over Alaska and western Canada, brought northerlies exceeding 20 m s−1 and temperature decreases up to 15°C over 24 h into Mexico and Central America. This paper addresses the multiscale aspects of the surge from the planetary scale to the mesoscale, focusing on 1) the structure and evolution of the leading edge of the cold surge, 2) the reasons for its extraordinary intensity and equatorward extent, and 3) the impact of the surge on the Tropics, specifically, on the strength of the trade winds and on the sea surface temperature in the eastern Pacific. The cold surge was initiated as a developing cyclone over the Gulf of Mexico, and an upstream anticyclone east of the Rockies caused an along-barrier pressure gradient to form, forcing topographically channeled northerlies along the Rocky and Sierra Madre Mountains to transport cold air equatorward. On the mesoscale, the leading edge of the cold surge possessed nonclassical frontal structure. For example, as the cold surge entered Mexico, the coldest air and the strongest wind arrived at about 900 hPa before affecting the surface, suggestive of a tipped-forward leading edge to the surge. Also, satellite imagery and surface observations indicate that the leading edge appeared to be successively regenerated in the warm presurge air. The cold surge had characteristics reminiscent of a Kelvin wave, a tipped-forward cold front, a pressure-jump line, a bore, and a gravity current, but none of these conceptual/dynamical models was fully applicable. Associated with the cold surge, gap winds up to 25 m s−1 were observed in the Gulfs of Tehuantepec (a tehuantepecer), Fonseca, Papagayo, and Panama, owing to the strong cross-mountain pressure gradient. In the case of the tehuantepecer, a rope cloud emanated from the Isthmus of Tehuantepec and turned anticyclonically, consistent with an inertial oscillation. On the synoptic and planetary scales, the extraordinary equatorward extent of the cold surge was aided by topographic channeling similar to cold-air damming, by a low-latitude upper-tropospheric trough, and by the lower branch of the secondary circulation associated with a confluent jet-entrance region aloft. The cold surge also impacted the tropical atmosphere and ocean, by contributing to the strengthening of the northeast trade winds over the eastern Pacific Ocean and by inducing local cooling of the sea surface temperature in the Gulfs of Tehuantepec and Papagayo by about 4°–8°C.