A case study of penetrative convection and gravity waves over the PROFS mesonetwork on 23 July 1983

Summary This paper describes the evolution of two thunderstorms which developed over northeastern Colorado on 23 July 1983, and more significantly discusses the possible causal relationship between them. In particular, a disturbance apparently created by the first thunderstorm, which developed over the eastern slopes of the Rocky mountains, seems to have triggered the second thunderstorm, which developed further east over the high plains. We present evidence that suggests that the disturbance is a rapidly propagating gravity wave (possibly a solitary wave of depression) that occupied most of the troposphere and was generated by the explosive convective development of the first thunderstorm. Detailed observations of the interactions between these two storms were possible because both storms developed over a dense network of automated weather stations that provided high temporal and spatial resolution surface measurements of pressure, temperature, precipitation, and horizontal wind velocity. Also located within this mesonetwork was a high power 915 MHz wind profiler that provided radial velocities throughout most of the troposphere. These measurements were supplemented with GOES visible and infrared satellite imagery and operational data from National Weather Service rawinsondes and weather radars.With 15 Figures