Coastally trapped stratus events in British Columbia

Abstract

Coastally trapped stratus events involve the alongshore propagation of a low‐level mesoscale ridge of high pressure, and generally occur only during summer in British Columbia. During these events, a body of cool dense air overlain by stratus cloud propagates northwards in the marine layer. This situation results because Coriolis effects trap the dense air against the coastal mountains and an inversion layer prevents vertical leakage of energy. Detailed analysis of a late summer event and comparison of the observations with available theory are presented. It is shown that the theoretical speeds for the event agree reasonably with observations except near major topographic variability. The theoretical trapping scale (internal Rossby radius) computed from the sounding data matches the observed width of the coastal stratus seen on satellite imagery. It is found that the properties of the event may be accounted for by the propagation in the marine layer of a coastally trapped intrusion with steep leading edge or shock. Attention is drawn to the role that the complex topography of Vancouver Island plays in influencing the propagation of the event, and some suggestions for forecasting these phenomena are made.