Comparison of Evaporation and Cold Pool Development between Single-Moment and Multimoment Bulk Microphysics Schemes in Idealized Simulations of Tornadic Thunderstorms

Abstract Idealized simulations of the 3 May 1999 Oklahoma tornadic supercell storms are conducted at various horizontal grid spacings ranging from 1 km to 250 m, using a sounding extracted from a prior 3-km grid spacing real-data simulation. A sophisticated multimoment bulk microphysics parameterization scheme capable of predicting up to three moments of the particle or drop size distribution (DSD) for several liquid and ice hydrometeor species is evaluated and compared with traditional single-moment schemes. The emphasis is placed on the impact of microphysics, specifically rain evaporation and size sorting, on cold pool strength and structure, and on the overall reflectivity structure of the simulated storms. It is shown through microphysics budget analyses and examination of specific processes within the low-level downdraft regions that the multimoment scheme has important advantages, which lead to a weaker and smaller cold pool and better reflectivity structure, particularly in the forward-flank regio...

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