Planetary-scale climatology of explosive cyclogenesis and blocking

• Published in: Monthly weather review Vol. 124; no. 11; pp. 2509 - 2520
• Main Authors: COLUCCI, S. J, ALBERTA, T. L
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: Boston, MA American Meteorological Society 01.11.1996
• Subjects: Cyclones; Earth, ocean, space; Exact sciences and technology; External geophysics; Meteorology; Storms, hurricanes, tornadoes, thunderstorms; Weather; Northern Hemisphere; Planetary scale; Atmospheric blocking; Planetary wave; Winter; Precursor; Cyclogenesis
• ISSN: 0027-0644; 1520-0493
• DOI: 10.1175/1520-0493(1996)124<2509:pscoec>2.0.co;2

Each cyclone was categorized according to the calculated v component of the planetary-scale SOO-mb geostrophic wind over the cyclone center at the temporal midpoint of its rapid intensification period.\n If this is true, then the block onsets would each appear to be due to the interaction of synoptic-scale processes with the preconditioned (anomalously amplified) planetary waves. Since block onset here is defined by the development of geostrophic easterlies at 500 mb between 40° and 600N, then it must be associated with geopotential height rises at 600N and/or height falls at 400N. [...]the potential block-onset precursors detailed in this study will be applied to the problem of empirically predicting block onset in an independent dataset (i.e., the winters since 1986/87) in order to test their validity and to update our climatology .