Abstract: | A synoptic climatology of warm season heavy rainfall is developed from patterns of 850 mb thermal advection over the Appalachian region. Heavy rain events are categorized according to the position and orientation of a warm air advection (WAA) ridge, a feature found in nearly two-thirds of the events. Numerous study events occur within the conditionally unstable region of the WAA ridge. In fact, numerous occurrences of heavy rainfall are tied to a superpositioning of a WAA and air mass instability ridge in the vicinity or upstream of the heavy rain area. |