Fine-Scale Observations of Summertime Precipitation in an Intra-Alpine Region

Summary

¶Intra-mountain summertime precipitation was studied in the Alps in a 40×20 km² area centered around Innsbruck, Austria, from June through September 1997. An observational network with a mean separation distance of 9 km and forecasts from the ECMWF model were used to examine the role the strong forcing from the lower boundary plays in creating “hot spots” for the formation of thunderstorms and the location of heavy precipitation as well as systematic precipitation patterns for different weather situations, which can be used to downscale forecasts from global scale routine numerical weather prediction models.