Environments associated with giant hail-producing thunderstorms in Northern Argentina

Several studies have shown that South America is one of the prime locations for the production of intense hailstorms in the world, with previous research showing South America to be a region of large hail production using TRMM and other satellite proxies. Until recently, there has been limited research on the hail production in Argentina due to a lack of consistent and quality-controlled observations, yet the damage from hail caused approximately $30 million USD in fruit production and $50 million USD in wine production losses annually. This research utilizes Twitter to identify hail events, which are verified using GOES-13 satellite imagery and/or C-band radar signatures in Northern Argentina. ERA-5 reanalysis is then used to reconstruct the environment of giant hail (diameter > 70 mm) events. We found that areas surrounding Córdoba and Mendoza, Argentina have (1) enhanced synoptic-scale ascent through the overlapping of upper-level divergence from two jet streaks downstream of an anomalous trough; (2) a deep layer of moisture supplied from the Amazon basin transport by the South American low-level jet below mid-level cool, dry westerlies; and (3) composite CAPE > 1200 J/kg capped by CIN ~100 J/kg. Even though (1) and (2) are similar to the environment of hailstorms in the U.S., the relatively lower CAPE and higher CIN for giant hail production in Argentina poses interesting questions for future work.

Name thesis:degree_name

M.S.

Level thesis:degree_level

Thesis

Discipline thesis:degree_discipline

Atmospheric Sciences

Grantor

University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign

Year dc:date

2020

Author dc:creator

• Chen, Shaowen Amy

Contributors dc:contributor

• Hence, Deanna A

• giant hail
• hailstorms
• severe convection
• Argentina
• South America
• Twitter

Statement dc:rights

• Copyright 2019 Shaowen Chen

Language dc:language

en

Handle dc:identifier

http://hdl.handle.net/2142/106394

OAI record oai:identifier

https://www.ideals.illinois.edu/oai-pmh?verb=GetRecord&metadataPrefix=etdms&identifier=oai%3Awww.ideals.illinois.edu%3A2142%2F106394