Numerical Simulation of an Intense Squall Line during 10–11 June 1985 PRE-STORM. Part I: Model Verification

Abstract A 24-h nested-grid simulation of an intense squall line during the 1985 PRE-STORM experiment is presented using an improved version of the Pennsylvania State University/National Center for Atmospheric Research three-dimensional mesoscale model. Although the model is initialized at 1200 UTC 10 June 1985 with conventional meteorological observations, it reproduces remarkably well many observed meso-β scale features that are analyzed from the high-resolution network data. These include 1) the generation of two areas of deep convection at the model initial time; 2) the timing of the initiation of the squall line along a surface front 9 h into the model integration; 3) the development of several convective bands at 2100 UTC; 4) the rapid intensification and rapid dissipation processes of the squall line as it entered and moved out of the network, respectively; 5) the generation of a presquall mesolow, a squall-induced mesohigh and a wake low as well as corresponding multiple surface convergence-diverg...