Simulations of orographic precipitation in the Snowy Mountains of Southeastern Australia

Abstract

Wintertime cold fronts generate much of the precipitation in the Snowy Mountains of south eastern Australia where orographic clouds composed primarily of supercooled liquid water (SLW) are frequently observed. A case study of a heavy precipitation event in late autumn (May 2016) is presented to better understand this precipitation. A frontal system generated from a strong cut-off low passed over the mountains producing up to 145 mm of precipitation over a period of 72 h. Given the many challenges in short-term quantitative precipitation forecasting, the main objectives are (1) evaluating the performance of the simulation of precipitation and clouds using high density ground based observation..