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Title: Numerical simulation and analysis of the April 2013 Chicago floods

Journal Article · · Journal of Hydrology
 [1];  [1]
  1. Argonne National Lab. (ANL), Argonne, IL (United States)
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The weather event associated to record Chicago floods on April 2013 is investigated by using the Weather Research and Forecasting (WRF) model. Observations at Argonne National Laboratory and multi-sensor (weather radar and rain gauge) precipitation data from the National Weather Service were employed to evaluate the model’s performance. The WRF model captured the synoptic-scale atmospheric features well, but the simulated 24-h accumulated precipitation and short-period temporal evolution of precipitation over the heavy-rain region were less successful. To investigate the potential reasons for the model bias, four supplementary sensitivity experiments using various microphysics schemes and cumulus parameterizations were designed. Of the five tested parameterizations, the WRF Single-Moment 6-class (WSM6) graupel scheme and Kain-Fritsch (KF) cumulus parameterization outperformed the others, such as Grell-Dévényi (GD) cumulus parameterization, which underestimated the precipitation by 30–50% on a regional-average scale. Morrison microphysics and KF outperformed the others for the spatial patterns of 24-h accumulated precipitation. The spatial correlation between observation and Morrison-KF was 0.45, higher than those for other simulations. All of the simulations underestimated the precipitation over northeastern Illinois (especially at Argonne) during 0400–0800 UTC 18 April because of weak ascending motion or small moisture. In conclusion, all of the simulations except WSM6-GD also underestimated the precipitation during 1200–1600 UTC 18 April because of weak southerly flow.

Research Organization:
Argonne National Laboratory (ANL), Argonne, IL (United States)
Sponsoring Organization:
Argonne National Laboratory; USDOE
Grant/Contract Number:
AC02-06CH11357
OSTI ID:
1342902
Alternate ID(s):
OSTI ID: 1248432
Journal Information:
Journal of Hydrology, Vol. 531, Issue P2; ISSN 0022-1694
Publisher:
ElsevierCopyright Statement
Country of Publication:
United States
Language:
English
Citation Metrics:
Cited by: 8 works
Citation information provided by
Web of Science

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  • Commerce, National Centers For Environmental Prediction/National Weather Service/NOAA/U. S. Department Of
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dataset January 2000

Cited By (2)

Differences in precipitation efficiency and their probable mechanisms between the warm sector and cold front stages of a heavy rainfall event over Beijing journal April 2018
A parallel workflow implementation for PEST version 13.6 in high-performance computing for WRF-Hydro version 5.0: a case study over the midwestern United States journal January 2019

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54 ENVIRONMENTAL SCIENCES
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floods
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