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On the anomalous precipitation enhancement over the Himalayan foothills during monsoon breaks

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Abstract

An intriguing feature associated with ‘breaks’ in the Indian summer monsoon is the occurrence of intense/flood-producing precipitation confined to central-eastern parts of the Himalayan (CEH) foothills and north-eastern parts of India. Past studies have documented various large-scale circulation aspects associated with monsoon-breaks, however the dynamical mechanisms responsible for anomalous precipitation enhancement over CEH foothills remain unclear. This problem is investigated using diagnostic analyses of observed and reanalysis products and high-resolution model simulations. The present findings show that the anomalous precipitation enhancement over the CEH foothills during monsoon-breaks emerges as a consequence of interactions between southward intruding mid-latitude westerly troughs and the South Asian monsoon circulation in its weak phase. These interactions facilitate intensification of mid-tropospheric cyclonic vorticity and strong ascending motion over the CEH foothills, so as to promote deep convection and concentrated rainfall activity over the region during monsoon-breaks. Mesoscale orographic effects additionally tend to amplify the vertical motions and precipitation over the CEH foothills as evidenced from the high-resolution model simulations. It is further noted from the model simulations that the coupling between precipitation and circulation during monsoon-breaks can produce nearly a threefold increase of total precipitation over the CEH foothills and neighborhood as opposed to active-monsoon conditions.

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Acknowledgments

The authors gratefully acknowledge Professor B. N. Goswami, Director, Indian Institute of Tropical Meteorology (IITM) for the support. The WRF simulations were performed at the High Performance Computing (HPC) facility at IITM. The authors also thank Drs. Nayana Deshpande, Milind Mujumdar and K. P. Sooraj, IITM for helpful discussions and the data support. ERA-Interim datasets used in this study have been obtained from the ECMWF data server. The authors gratefully acknowledge comments and suggestions from the reviewers that helped to improve the manuscript.

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  1. Centre for Climate Change Research, Indian Institute of Tropical Meteorology, Pune, 411 008, India

    Ramesh K. Vellore, R. Krishnan, Jayant Pendharkar, Ayantika Dey Choudhury & T. P. Sabin

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Vellore, R.K., Krishnan, R., Pendharkar, J. et al. On the anomalous precipitation enhancement over the Himalayan foothills during monsoon breaks. Clim Dyn 43, 2009–2031 (2014). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00382-013-2024-1

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