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Miao, J.-E., and M.-J. Yang, 2020: A modeling study of the severe afternoon thunderstorm event at Taipei on 14 June 2015: The roles of sea breeze, microphysics, and terrain. J. Meteor. Soc. Japan, 98, 129-152.
https://doi.org/10.2151/jmsj.2020-008
Graphical Abstract

Plain Language Summary: On 14 June 2015, a severe afternoon thunderstorm event developed within the Taipei basin, producing intense rainfall (with rainfall rate of 131 mm h^-1) and urban-scale flooding. This study uses high-resolution simulations (with the finest horizontal grid size of 500 m) to successfully reproduce this thunderstorm event, and performs numerical experiments to examine the interactions between sea breeze, cold-air outflow, and local coastal terrain of Mount Datun.

Highlights:

• Convective available potential energy (CAPE) was increased from 800 to 3200 J kg^-1 with abundant moisture transport by the sea breeze from 08 to 12 LST.
• Evaporative cooling played a major role in the propagation of cold-air outflow and the production of heavy rainfall within Taipei basin, while melting cooling played a relatively minor role.
• Mount Datun at coastal region produced the channel effect through Danshui River Valley, intensified sea-breeze circulation and transported more moisture, made the thermodynamic characteristics more favorable for convection development, resulting in heavy rainfall.