PNNL

Abstract

Deep convective storms play a key role in severe weather, the hydrological cycle and the global atmospheric circulation. Historically little attention has been paid to the occurrence of intense convective storms in the climatologically cool regions of high latitudes. Yet it is these regions that are experiencing the largest increases of mean surface temperature over the last century. Pattern of convection might be expected to change correspondingly. The 2014 launch of the Global Precipitation Measurement (GPM) core observatory satellite, which features a space-borne Dual-frequency Precipitation Radar (DPR) providing near-global coverage (65°S to 65°N), has made it possible to establish the occurrence of convective storms at high latitudes. Analysis of the three-dimensional structure of the radar echoes seen by GPM over a 5-year period (2014-2018) shows that extremely intense deep convective storms do occur often during the warm season (April-September) in the high-latitude continental locations where the increase of Earth’s surface temperature has been greatest. This discovery implies that the occurrence of high latitude extreme convection may be expected to increase in a continually warming world.