Images from VIS5D

(click on the images to see bigger pictures)
 
Skew-T Chart of initial conditions. A vertical profile of Potential Temperature and Specific Humidity (of water vapor) are plotted. Check out the wind field too. (Image Size: ~36 kilobytes)
 
Skew-T
 
This is the sounding used to initialize the entire ARPS domain. Pretty unlikely that such a muggy and unstable airmass would ever visit the White Mountains, making this so much more enjoyable. 
 
The green line is Potential Temperature. 
 
The light blue line is the specific humidity (of water vapor). 
 
(Temperature and Dewpoint did not get dumped out of this ARPS simulation.) 
 
The Model initial time is 18:00 GMT on a date I only selected because it's close to the Summer Solstice (June 21, 1998).
 Helping you to see the While Mountains and the "Lakes Region", here is the terrain colorized and contoured every 200 meters. (Image Size ~91 Kilobytes)
 
Topography
 
At the center point on the surface of this map, is a small village called Beebe River. You are looking at a 1 kilometer resolution representation of the White Mountains National Park and the Lakes Region of New Hampshire. 
 
Franconia Notch is easy to see when you draw a line (in your mind) from North to South right down the center of the map. 
 
Mount Washington did not quite make it into this simulation. Mt. Lafayette did, it's the high peak on the north side of Franconia Notch (on the east side). 
 
Lake Winnipesaukee and the other lakes are in that vast expanse of green in the southeast corner. 
 
Move along and watch the towns of Franklin and Laconia get pummeled!
One minute into the simulation, the sun is shining brightly into this oppressive airmass and onto the White Mountains. (Image Size ~106 kilobytes)
 
 
Solar Radiation
 
This image depicts sunshine onto the terrain in this simulation. The color red shows where the sun is warming the mountains the most. Blue denotes shadows behind the mountains. 
 
The colored field is the shortwave radiation flux. Those terrain contours are again for every 200 meters and wll be in all the other images.
The 3.5 degree kelvin Potential Temperature perturbation intersects the surface.  (Image Size ~76 kilobytes)
 
Triggering Mechanism
 
I placed a 3.5 degree Kelvin Potential Temperature tube near the Earth's surface. This image depicts where it intersects the ground. The core of this tube has a potential temperature 3.5 degrees warmer than the surrounding environment. 
 
You can't see it here, but the center of the tube reaches an altitude of 2.5 kilometers. You are looking down onto Beebe River, NH. 
 
As you saw in the skew-T, the low level easterly wind will carry this into the higher terrain on the west side of the Pemigewasset River and Franconia Notch.
Rainfall that reached the ground throughout this simulation. (Image Size ~12 kilobytes)
 
Total Rainfall 
 
Total rainfall onto the ground is depicted here. There is a rainfall maximum of 65 millimeters in the red splotch. This fell from a mesocyclone that formed near Franklin and drifted slowly west toward Ragged Mt. 
Positive Vorticity surfaces rendered to locate the mesocyclones. ( Size ~31 kilobytes)
 
Positive Vorticity
 
Mesocyclones are depicted here. The view here is from the south. You are looking north up Franconia Notch. 
 
A surface has been rendered on values of vorticity of 3.5E-3 radians/second. Higher values are contained inside of these blobs. 
 
The vorticity surface is colored according to it's altitude, and ranges from blue at the model top, to red at the ground. 
 
That one dominant mesocyclone shows up nicely in the foreground and is touching the Earth's surface.
 

 
Timothy Myers
Last modified: Sat Jan 9 14:39:10 EST 1999