Anomaly patterns about strong convective events in the tropics and midlatitudes: Observations from radiosondes and surface weather stations

We use 13 years (1998–2010) of rainfall estimates from the Tropical Rainfall Measuring Mission to identify high rain events located close to radiosondes. This is done in four regions: the Western Tropical Pacific, Tropical Brazil, Southeast China, and Southeast U.S. We then construct composite anomaly patterns of temperature, relative humidity, surface pressure, convective available potential energy (CAPE), geopotential height, mass divergence, relative vorticity, and potential vorticity about these high rain events. One motivation of this analysis is to identify regional differences in the interaction between strong convective events and the background atmosphere. We find, overall, that the changes in meteorological variables which occur during the evolution of strong convective events in midlatitudes are similar to the changes that occur in the tropics. In midlatitudes, however, strong convective events are associated with stronger anomalies in surface pressure and geopotential height and exhibit a warm anomaly in the lower troposphere prior to peak rainfall. In the Southeast U.S., the near‐surface layer of positive CAPE that occurs prior to high rain events is thicker than in the Western Tropical Pacific. In the two midlatitude regions, the midlevel potential vorticity maximum that develops during the growth stage of high rain events acquires a downward tilt toward the surface during the decay stage, suggesting downward transport toward the surface. A conceptual model previously used to interpret the anomaly patterns of the 2 day equatorial wave is used to interpret the anomaly patterns associated with more general types of high rain events in the tropics. Key Points Interaction between strong convective events and the background atmosphere CAPE, potential vorticity, and surface pressure changes during high rain events Convection environment in the tropics and midlatitudes