Tropical mesoscale rainfall patterns: the opening of the monsoon in the Townsville area, December 1988

Abstract

Rainfall during six days of monsoonal activity in the 1988/89 wet season is examined in terms of the influence of synoptic scale winds on mesoscale rainfall activity over the Townsville coastal plain (3450 km2). The resulting rainfall patterns. which were based on observations from a dense mesoscale network of 133 gauge points. are presented as isohyetal maps of twenty‐four hour totals for each day in the study period.The study has shown that the distribution of rainfall is related to the influence of synoptic scale wind vectors, which provide upper level steering of convective activity. In addition. the interaction between local winds and synoptic circulation is deemed important for inducing convergence and precipitation. Rainfall generated is then directed by the prevailing upper synoptic flow. Orographic effects also appear to be significant, in that rainfall distribution tends to favour slopes on the windward side of the synoptic scale winds. The rainfall patterns described are probably typical of many of those that occurred throughout the 1988/89 wet season, due to the likely persistence of these mesoscale precipitation mechanisms. Similar mechanisms are also likely to occur over the study area in other wet seasons and elsewhere in the seasonally wet and dry tropics.