A climatology of Australian heat low events

Article


Lavender, Sally L.. 2017. "A climatology of Australian heat low events." International Journal of Climatology. 37 (1), pp. 534-539. https://doi.org/10.1002/joc.4692
Article Title

A climatology of Australian heat low events

ERA Journal ID1969
Article CategoryArticle
Authors
AuthorLavender, Sally L.
Journal TitleInternational Journal of Climatology
Journal Citation37 (1), pp. 534-539
Number of Pages6
Year2017
PublisherJohn Wiley & Sons
Place of PublicationUnited Kingdom
ISSN0899-8418
1097-0088
Digital Object Identifier (DOI)https://doi.org/10.1002/joc.4692
Web Address (URL)https://rmets.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/full/10.1002/joc.4692
Abstract

Heat lows are a persistent feature over northern Australia between the Austral late spring and early autumn. The first ever multi-decadal climatology of individual Australian heat lows is presented here, based on an automated detection scheme applied to 35 years of ERA-Interim reanalysis data. Australian heat lows occur most frequently over the northwest of the continent and exhibit a pronounced seasonal cycle in both their frequency and intensity. Heat lows occur in response to surface heating and are most common over Australia during December and January when they can be detected on 95% of days. These months are also when the heat lows are most intense in terms of the central pressure and low-level cyclonic circulation. A composite heat low based on all heat low detections enables the three-dimensional structure of the heat lows to be analysed. The shallow nature of the heat low is clearly evident, and the structure is consistent with heat low observations in other regions of the globe. The similarity between the results presented here and the results of previous modelling studies as well as possible links between Australian heat lows and local weather is discussed. © 2016 Royal Meteorological Society

KeywordsAustralia; circulation; climate; heat low; boiler circulation; earth atmosphere; automated detection; cyclonic circulation; Northern Australia; persistent feature; three-dimensional structure; climatology; atmospheric circulation; autumn; climate modeling; heat flow; modeling; surface flux; three-dimensional modeling
ANZSRC Field of Research 2020370202. Climatology
Public Notes

Files associated with this item cannot be displayed due to copyright restrictions.

Byline AffiliationsCommonwealth Scientific and Industrial Research Organisation (CSIRO), Australia
Institution of OriginUniversity of Southern Queensland
Permalink -

https://research.usq.edu.au/item/q51y0/a-climatology-of-australian-heat-low-events

  • 313
    total views
  • 8
    total downloads
  • 1
    views this month
  • 0
    downloads this month

Export as

Related outputs

The performance of the CoMorph-A convection package in global simulations with the Met Office Unified Model
Lock, A. P., Whitall, M., Stirling, A. J., Williams, K., Lavender, S. L., Morcrette, C., Matsubayashi, K., Field, P. R., Martin, G., Willett, M. and Heming, J.. 2024. "The performance of the CoMorph-A convection package in global simulations with the Met Office Unified Model." Quarterly Journal of the Royal Meteorological Society. 150 (763), pp. 3527-3543. https://doi.org/10.1002/qj.4781
The use of idealised experiments in testing a new convective parametrization: Performance of CoMorph-A
Lavender, Sally L., Stirling, Alison J., Whitall, Michael, Stratton, Rachel A., Daleu, Chimene L., Plant, Robert S., Lock, Adrian and Gu, Jian-Feng. 2024. "The use of idealised experiments in testing a new convective parametrization: Performance of CoMorph-A." Quarterly Journal of the Royal Meteorological Society. 150 (760), pp. 1581-1600. https://doi.org/10.1002/qj.4660
The Northern Australia Climate Program: Overview and Selected Highlights
Lavender, Sally L., Cowan, Tim, Hawcroft, Matthew, Wheeler, Matthew C., Jarvis, Chelsea, Cobon, David, Nguyen, Hanh, Hudson, Debra, Sharmila, S., Marshall, Andrew G., de Burgh-Day, Catherine, Milton, Sean, Stirling, Alison, Alves, Oscar and Hendon, Harry H.. 2022. "The Northern Australia Climate Program: Overview and Selected Highlights." Bulletin of the American Meteorological Society. 103 (11), pp. E2492-E2505. https://doi.org/10.1175/BAMS-D-21-0309.1
Estimation of maximum seasonal tropical cyclone damage in the Atlantic using climate models
Lavender, Sally L., Walsh, Kevin J. E., Utembe, Steven, Caron, Louis‑Philippe and Guishard, Mark. 2021. "Estimation of maximum seasonal tropical cyclone damage in the Atlantic using climate models." Natural Hazards. https://doi.org/10.1007/s11069-021-04977-2
The benefits of ensemble prediction for forecasting an extreme event: the Queensland floods of February 2019
Hawcroft, Matt, Lavender, Sally, Copsey, Dan, Milton, Sean, Rodriguez, Jose, Tennant, Warren, Webster, Stuart and Cowan, Tim. 2021. "The benefits of ensemble prediction for forecasting an extreme event: the Queensland floods of February 2019." Monthly Weather Review. 149, pp. 2391-2408. https://doi.org/10.1175/MWR-D-20-0330.1
Global climatology of rainfall rates and lifetime accumulated rainfall in tropical cyclones: Influence of cyclone basin, cyclone intensity and cyclone size
Lavender, Sally L. and McBride, John L.. 2021. "Global climatology of rainfall rates and lifetime accumulated rainfall in tropical cyclones: Influence of cyclone basin, cyclone intensity and cyclone size." International Journal of Climatology. 41 (S1), pp. E1217-E1235. https://doi.org/10.1002/joc.6763
Review of tropical cyclones in the Australian region: climatology, variability, predictability, and trends
Chand, Savin S., Dowdy, Andrew J., Ramsay, Hamish A., Walsh, Kevin J. E., Tory, Kevin J., Power, Scott B., Bell, Samuel S., Lavender, Sally L., Ye, Hua and Kuleshov, Yuri. 2019. "Review of tropical cyclones in the Australian region: climatology, variability, predictability, and trends." WIREs Climate Change. 10 (5), pp. 1-17. https://doi.org/10.1002/wcc.602
Preliminary assessment of the impact of climate change on design rainfall IFD curves
Bates, Bryson C., Argueso, Daniel, Evans, Jason, Green, Janice, Griesser, Aurel, Jakob, Dorte, Seed, Alan, Lau, Rex, Lehmann, Eric, Phatak, Aloke, Abbs, Deborah, Lavender, Sally, Nguyen, Kim, Rafter, Tony, Thatcher, Marcus, Zheng, Feifei, Westra, Seth and Leonard, Michael. 2015. "Preliminary assessment of the impact of climate change on design rainfall IFD curves." 36th Hydrology and Water Resources Symposium: The Art and Science of Water (HWRS 2015). Hobart, Australia 07 - 10 Dec 2015 Barton, Australia.
Tropical cyclone track direction climatology and its intraseasonal variability in the Australian region
Lavender, Sally L. and Dowdy, Andrew J.. 2016. "Tropical cyclone track direction climatology and its intraseasonal variability in the Australian region." Journal of Geophysical Research: Atmospheres. 121 (22), pp. 13,236-13,249. https://doi.org/10.1002/2016JD025562
Spatial and temporal variation in the effects of climatic variables on Dugong calf production
Fuentes, Mariana M. P. B., Delean, Steven, Grayson, Jillian, Lavender, Sally, Logan, Murray and Marsh, Helene. 2016. "Spatial and temporal variation in the effects of climatic variables on Dugong calf production." PLoS One. 11 (6), pp. 1-14. https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0155675
The contribution of tropical cyclones to rainfall in northwest Australia
Ng, Benjamin, Walsh, Kevin and Lavender, Sally. 2015. "The contribution of tropical cyclones to rainfall in northwest Australia." International Journal of Climatology. 35 (10), pp. 2689-2697. https://doi.org/10.1002/joc.4148
Estimation of the maximum annual number of North Atlantic tropical cyclones using climate models
Lavender, Sally L., Walsh, Kevin J. E., Caron, Louis-Philippe, King, Malcolm, Monkiewicz, Sam, Guishard, Mark, Zhang, Qiong and Hunt, barrie. 2018. "Estimation of the maximum annual number of North Atlantic tropical cyclones using climate models." Science Advances. 4 (8), pp. 1-8. https://doi.org/10.1126/sciadv.aat6509
The influence of sea surface temperature on the intensity and associated storm surge of tropical cyclone Yasi: a sensitivity study
Lavender, Sally L., Hoeke, Ron K. and Abbs, Deborah J.. 2018. "The influence of sea surface temperature on the intensity and associated storm surge of tropical cyclone Yasi: a sensitivity study." Natural Hazards and Earth System Sciences. 18 (3), pp. 795-805. https://doi.org/10.5194/nhess-18-795-2018
The physical processes causing nocturnal rainfall over northwest Australia and their representation in high- and low-resolution models with parametrized convection
Ackerley, D., Birch, C. E., Garcia-Carreras, L., Lavender, S. L. and Weller, E.. 2018. "The physical processes causing nocturnal rainfall over northwest Australia and their representation in high- and low-resolution models with parametrized convection." Quarterly Journal of the Royal Meteorological Society. 144 (711), pp. 511-528. https://doi.org/10.1002/qj.3223