Rapid Intensification of a Sheared Tropical Storm

Abstract A weak tropical storm (Gabrielle in 2001) experienced a 22-hPa pressure fall in less than 3 h in the presence of 13 m s−1 ambient vertical wind shear. A convective cell developed downshear left of the center and moved cyclonically and inward to the 17-km radius during the period of rapid intensification. This cell had one of the most intense 85-GHz scattering signatures ever observed by the Tropical Rainfall Measuring Mission (TRMM). The cell developed at the downwind end of a band in the storm core. Maximum vorticity in the cell exceeded 2.5 × 10−2 s−1. The cell structure broadly resembled that of a vortical hot tower rather than a supercell. At the time of minimum central pressure, the storm consisted of a strong vortex adjacent to the cell with a radius of maximum winds of about 10 km that exhibited almost no tilt in the vertical. This was surrounded by a broader vortex that tilted approximately left of the ambient shear vector, in a similar direction as the broad precipitation shield. This st...

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