Abstract:
Short term heavy rainfall, thunderstorm winds and hail in severe convective weather have a high risk of causing disasters, and accurately understanding the similarities and differences in environmental parameters of different types of severe convective weather is the foundation for providing accurate forecasting and early warning. This article analyzed the spatiotemporal distribution and environmental parameters of three types of severe convective weather in Anshun City, using hail, thunderstorm winds, and short-term heavy precipitation data from the Anshun Regional Automatic Stations from 2015 to 2023. The results showed that there were significant differences in the spatial distribution and occurrence frequency of the three types of severe convective weather. The spatial distribution of short-term heavy precipitation showed a trend of more in the northwest and less in the southeast, hail was more in the central and north, with less in the south, and thunderstorm winds were relatively scattered. The concentrated period of the three types of severe convective weather was from early April to mid-June, and the peak periods of severe convective weather were as follows, thunderstorm winds’ peak period occurred in early April, hail’s, in late April, and short-term heavy precipitation’s, in mid-June. Hail and thunderstorm winds mainly appeared in the late afternoon to 20:00, while short-term intense precipitation occurred before 24 o’clock. There were also significant differences in environmental parameters among the three types of severe convective weather. The CAPE value, K-index, specific humidity and wet layer height of short-term heavy precipitation were higher than those of the other two types of severe convective weather, making it more likely for short-term heavy precipitation to occur in high-energy and high humidity environments. Thunderstorm winds occurred in environments with high vertical wind shear and DACPE, as well as with the less deep wet layer thickness. Hail occurred in a large Δ
T85, moderate energy and vertical wind shear environment. The physical parameter thresholds for hail were the highest for Δ
T75 and Δ
T85, respectively at 14.9 ℃ and 22 ℃, those for thunderstorm winds were the lowest, respectively at 13.5 ℃ and 19.7 ℃, and those for short-term heavy precipitation fell in between. For DCAPE and SHR3, thunderstorm winds had the maximum values, respectively at 2.9 J·kg
−1 and 7·9 m·s
−1, while short-term heavy precipitation had the minimum values, at 1.0 J·kg
−1 and 5.3 m·s
−1. Besides, the maximum values for other physical parameters were observed in short-term heavy precipitation.