Articles | Volume 5, issue 4
https://doi.org/10.5194/wcd-5-1299-2024
https://doi.org/10.5194/wcd-5-1299-2024
Review article
 | 
24 Oct 2024
Review article |  | 24 Oct 2024

The importance of diabatic processes for the dynamics of synoptic-scale extratropical weather systems – a review

Heini Wernli and Suzanne L. Gray

Related authors

Impact of climate change on snow avalanche activity in the Swiss Alps
Stephanie Mayer, Martin Hendrick, Adrien Michel, Bettina Richter, Jürg Schweizer, Heini Wernli, and Alec van Herwijnen
The Cryosphere, 18, 5495–5517, https://doi.org/10.5194/tc-18-5495-2024,https://doi.org/10.5194/tc-18-5495-2024, 2024
Short summary
Revealing the dynamics of a local Alpine windstorm using large-eddy simulations
Nicolai Krieger, Heini Wernli, Michael Sprenger, and Christian Kühnlein
EGUsphere, https://doi.org/10.5194/egusphere-2024-3461,https://doi.org/10.5194/egusphere-2024-3461, 2024
This preprint is open for discussion and under review for Weather and Climate Dynamics (WCD).
Short summary
Frequency anomalies and characteristics of extratropical cyclones during extremely wet, dry, windy and calm seasons in the extratropics
Hanin Binder and Heini Wernli
EGUsphere, https://doi.org/10.5194/egusphere-2024-2936,https://doi.org/10.5194/egusphere-2024-2936, 2024
Short summary
An object-based and Lagrangian view on an intense hailstorm day in Switzerland as represented in COSMO-1E ensemble hindcast simulations
Killian P. Brennan, Michael Sprenger, André Walser, Marco Arpagaus, and Heini Wernli
EGUsphere, https://doi.org/10.5194/egusphere-2024-2148,https://doi.org/10.5194/egusphere-2024-2148, 2024
Short summary
Precipitation extremes in Ukraine from 1979 to 2019: climatology, large-scale flow conditions, and moisture sources
Ellina Agayar, Franziska Aemisegger, Moshe Armon, Alexander Scherrmann, and Heini Wernli
Nat. Hazards Earth Syst. Sci., 24, 2441–2459, https://doi.org/10.5194/nhess-24-2441-2024,https://doi.org/10.5194/nhess-24-2441-2024, 2024
Short summary

Related subject area

Dynamical processes in midlatitudes
A global climatology of sting-jet extratropical cyclones
Suzanne L. Gray, Ambrogio Volonté, Oscar Martínez-Alvarado, and Ben J. Harvey
Weather Clim. Dynam., 5, 1523–1544, https://doi.org/10.5194/wcd-5-1523-2024,https://doi.org/10.5194/wcd-5-1523-2024, 2024
Short summary
The impact of preceding convection on the development of Medicane Ianos and the sensitivity to sea surface temperature
Claudio Sánchez, Suzanne Gray, Ambrogio Volonté, Florian Pantillon, Ségolène Berthou, and Silvio Davolio
Weather Clim. Dynam., 5, 1429–1455, https://doi.org/10.5194/wcd-5-1429-2024,https://doi.org/10.5194/wcd-5-1429-2024, 2024
Short summary
The impact of synoptic storm likelihood on European subseasonal forecast uncertainty and their modulation by the stratosphere
Philip Rupp, Jonas Spaeth, Hilla Afargan-Gerstman, Dominik Büeler, Michael Sprenger, and Thomas Birner
Weather Clim. Dynam., 5, 1287–1298, https://doi.org/10.5194/wcd-5-1287-2024,https://doi.org/10.5194/wcd-5-1287-2024, 2024
Short summary
Spatio-temporal averaging of jets obscures the reinforcement of baroclinicity by latent heating
Henrik Auestad, Clemens Spensberger, Andrea Marcheggiani, Paulo Ceppi, Thomas Spengler, and Tim Woollings
Weather Clim. Dynam., 5, 1269–1286, https://doi.org/10.5194/wcd-5-1269-2024,https://doi.org/10.5194/wcd-5-1269-2024, 2024
Short summary
Impact of stochastic physics on the representation of atmospheric blocking in EC-Earth3
Michele Filippucci, Simona Bordoni, and Paolo Davini
Weather Clim. Dynam., 5, 1207–1222, https://doi.org/10.5194/wcd-5-1207-2024,https://doi.org/10.5194/wcd-5-1207-2024, 2024
Short summary

Cited articles

Abatzoglou, J. T. and Magnusdottir, G.: Planetary wave breaking and nonlinear reflection: Seasonal cycle and interannual variability, J. Climate, 19, 6139–6152, https://doi.org/10.1175/JCLI3968.1, 2006. a
Adakudlu, M.: Impact of different initial conditions on the growth of polar lows: Idealised baroclinic channel simulations, Q. J. Roy. Meteorol. Soc., 138, 1297–1307, https://doi.org/10.1002/qj.1867, 2012. a
Adamson, D. S., Belcher, S. E., Hoskins, B. J., and Plant, R. S.: Boundary-layer friction in midlatitude cyclones, Q. J. Roy. Meteorol. Soc., 132, 101–124, https://doi.org/10.1256/QJ.04.145, 2006. a, b, c, d, e
Aebischer, U. and Schär, C.: Low-level potential vorticity and cyclogenesis to the lee of the Alps, J. Atmos. Sci., 55, 186–207, https://doi.org/10.1175/1520-0469(1998)055<0186:LLPVAC>2.0.CO;2, 1998. a, b
Agustí-Panareda, A., Thorncroft, C. D., Craig, G. C., and Gray, S. L.: The extratropical transition of Hurricane Irene (1999): A potential-vorticity perspective, Q. J. Roy. Meteorol. Soc., 130, 1047–1074, https://doi.org/10.1256/qj.02.140, 2004. a, b, c
Short summary
The science of extratropical dynamics has reached a new level where the interplay of dry dynamics with effects of latent heating in clouds and other diabatic processes is considered central to the field. This review documents how research about the role of diabatic processes evolved over more than a century; it highlights that progress relied essentially on the integration of theory, field campaigns, novel diagnostics, and numerical modelling, and it outlines avenues for future research.