An extreme wind event over the San Luis Potosi Valley, Mexico

Abstract

"Strong wind events over the Valley of San Luis Potosi, Mexico are investigated in this research work. These recurrent meteorological phenomena characterize differently the regional climate in the winter months of January and February every year. This work is a first approximation to evaluate the atmospheric circulation over the region during the days such events last. The State of San Luis Potosi exhibits complex orographic changes, an enormous vegetation variability and diverse climate manisfestations. All this special characteristics represent a challenge to be modeled considering the lack of research work done on this area. For this aim, the mesoscale numerical model MM5 was applied to simulate the mentioned stroong wind events over the surface and a typical atmospheric circulation in three summer days. Reported structures associated with intense wind forcing on the surface were fouund on the night of January 25th such as: Low Level Jet(LLJ) patterns, Katabatic winds and gravity waves patterns. The comparison of model results with puntual observations at two meteorological stations indicate a good agreement for temperature, winid speed and direction. Additionally, the evolution of observed satellite patterns of clouds agree satisfactorily with the modeled vertically integrated column of water."