A hail climatology in Mongolia

The temporal and spatial characteristics of hail frequency in Mongolia are examined using the hail observation data from 61 meteorological observatories for 1984-2013. The annual number of hail days averaged over all observatories and the entire period is 0.74. It exhibits a decreasing trend, particularly since 1993 with a rate of decrease of 0.214 per decade. Hail occurrence is concentrated in summer, with 72% of the total hail days occurring in June, July, and August. Moreover, hail occurrence is concentrated in the afternoon and early evening, with 89% of the total hail events occurring between 1200 and 2100 local standard time (LST). Spatially, observatories where relatively frequent hail events are observed are concentrated in the north central region where almost all of the land is mountainous or covered by grassland, whereas relatively less frequent hail events are observed in the southern desert region. The relationship between hail frequency and thermodynamic factors including the convective available potential energy (CAPE), the temperature lapse rate between 700 and 500 hPa, the water vapor mixing ratio averaged over the lowest 100 hPa layer, and the freezing-level height is examined using the ERA-Interim reanalysis data. It is found that in summer, CAPE and the low-level water vapor mixing ratio are larger on hail days than on all days, but there is no clear relationship between hail frequency and the 700-500 hPa temperature lapse rate. It is also found that annually, CAPE and the low-level water vapor mixing ratio decrease, while the freezing-level height increases, which seems to be responsible for the annually decreasing trend of hail frequency in Mongolia.