Weather pattern climatology of the Great Plains and the related wind regime
The meteorology of the Great Plains can be described as a constant progression of air masses, fronts and cyclonic storm systems. Each of these meteorological conditions can be characterized by identifiable isobaric and related weather parameter patterns. Nine such patterns have been defined to type the weather patterns in the Great Plains. Time series of weather pattern types were produced for 62 stations on the Great Plains. Statistical analyses of these time series produced annual and seasonal frequencies of occurrence of the weather pattern types. Maps of the annual and seasonal frequency of occurrence of weather pattern type are presented for the Great Plains. Persistence and alternation frequencies match what is expected for traveling temperate latitude cyclones, anticyclones and fronts. The wind regime for stations at which the anemometer height and location was constant (and known) for a minimum of three consecutive years was stratified by weather pattern type. Statistical analyses were made to show the response of the wind to the large-scale distribution of air pressure associated with a weather pattern type. The response of the wind to the weather pattern is a site-specific result of the interaction of the large-scale meteorology with local terrain, surface roughness and atmospheric stability. Mean wind speed discriminates between pairs of weather pattern types with better than 75% confidence for more than two-thirds of the possible pairs of weather pattern types.
- Research Organization:
- Pacific Northwest National Lab. (PNNL), Richland, WA (United States)
- DOE Contract Number:
- AC06-76RL01830
- OSTI ID:
- 6665824
- Report Number(s):
- PNL-4330; ON: DE83004408
- Country of Publication:
- United States
- Language:
- English
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