The adjustment of the wind field to small scale topography in a numerical weather prediction model

Numerical experiments are performed to test one reasonably economical method of producing regional forecasts. Starting with initial conditions interpolated from a 20 hour coarse grid Northern Hemisphere forecast, a fine mesh model is integrated for a further period of 4 hours over a limited area. The fine mesh is located over the north‐eastern part of North America and its resolution is sufficient to re‐produce topographic features such as the St. Lawrence and Richelieu Valleys. The resulting forecast at hour 24 is then compared with the coarse mesh prediction for the same time. The comparison reveals how the horizontal and vertical components of the wind are affected by the small scale topography. In particular, the channelling effect of the main valleys is demonstrated.