On the space and time distribution of showers in a tropical region

✍ Scribed by Christine M. Soane; V. G. Miles

• Publisher: John Wiley and Sons
• Year: 1955
• Tongue: English
• Weight: 613 KB
• Volume: 81
• Category: Article
• ISSN: 0035-9009
• DOI: 10.1002/qj.49708134913

✦ Synopsis

Abstract

Charts of daily rainfall in Southern Rhodesia show that the distribution of rain in space and time cannot be associated in any detail with features of the synoptic map.

Displays of precipitation echoes on the screen of a 10‐cm radar situated at Salisbury have been photographed by time‐lapse camera giving great detail and continuity of record.

It is found that echo displays associated with cumuliform cloud can be resolved into a few areas of echo activity which move continuously by a process of new echo formation. These moving areas have been termed ‘progressions’ and progression behaviour is described in terms of individual echo behaviour and in relation to other meteorological observations. The discovery of progressions has introduced order into a type of tropical shower activity which has previously been considered incoherent.