Analysis of Synoptic Mechanisms of Heavy Rainfall of 14th of April 2017 in Northwest Iran

Abstract

Heavy rainfall occurrence on April 14th, 2017 which followed by flood in Azarshahr and Ajabshir regions caused 48 deaths at East Azerbaijan province. Detecting synoptic mechanisms for such event was our main motivation for this study. In this regard, observational, upper atmospheric and SkewT data were used. First, spatial distribution of precipitation in the study area was plotted. Then, Geo-potential height, vorticity and omega, specific humidity, moisture transition, jet stream for upper level and Huff-Muller chart were analyzed for different atmosphere layers. Finally, some atmospheric stability indexes were surveyed by using SkewT charts. Results showed that, highest rainfall was occurred as a rain corridor between southwest of West Azerbaijan province and middle regions of Urmia Lake to the central regions of East Azerbaijan Province with 30 to 57 mm range. Synoptic maps showed that in this day simultaneous expansion of the ascending area of Mediterranean trough in mid atmospheric layers and the core of polar Jet stream in upper levels provided favorable conditions for unstable atmosphere on the northwest of Iran, so that the amount of omega was less than -0.3 Pascal per second. Specific humidity maps indicate that, at the same time a significant moisture flux has flown from the Red Sea to the northwest of Iran. Therefore, the rapid conversion of atmospheric moisture into the rain in the ascending area of Mediterranean trough was the main cause of the heavy rainfall occurring on this day. This issue was proved by convergence moisture flux map and the Hoff-Müller graph. SkewT charts and instability indexes of Tabriz station also confirmed high amount of moisture and favourable ascending conditions in the atmosphere on April 14th

Keywords

• heavy rainfall
• synoptic mechanism
• red sea moisture flow
• relative vorticity
• northwest of iran