Meteorol Atmos Phys 93, 115–122 (2006)

DOI 10.1007/s00703-005-0183-2

1
Department of Earth and Planetary Science, Graduate School of Science, The University of Tokyo,
Japan and Advanced Technology Research Center, Mitsubishi Heavy Industry Ltd., Kanagawa, Japan
2
Frontier Research Center for Global Change=JAMSTEC, Yokohama, Japan
3
Mitsubishi Nagasaki R&D Centre, Mitsubishi Heavy Industry Ltd., Nagasaki, Japan
4
Department of Earth and Planetary Science, Graduate School of Science, The University of Tokyo,
Japan and Frontier Research Center for Global Change=JAMSTEC, Yokohama, Japan
5
Indian Institute of Tropical Meteorology, Pune, India

A cyclone over Saudi Arabia on 5 January 2002: A case study

A. Chakraborty1, M. Mujumdar1;5, S. K. Behera2 , R. Ohba3 , and T. Yamagata4

With 6 Figures

Received October 5, 2005; accepted December 19, 2005

Published online: May 2, 2006 # Springer-Verlag 2006

Summary 1980; Lee et al, 1988; Trigo et al, 2002). To

A shallow and short-lived subsynoptic cyclone is discussed satisfy the societal and economic needs, the cor-
as one of typical events causing natural disasters over Saudi rect forecasting of these rainfall events is very
Arabia on 5 January 2002 using the Japan Meteorological important. A proper understanding of this precip-
Agency global analysis dataset. The main cause for itation event is very useful to achieve this goal.
its formation was vorticity stretching. On the same day When the Ministry of Education of Japan and
widespread rainfall over Saudi Arabia with enhanced
precipitation over the mountainous Jeddah region was also
Mitsubishi Heavy Industries Ltd. created a mas-
observed using the Global Precipitation Climatology ter plan in 2002 to improve the Saudi Arabian
Project dataset. Owing to eastward-moving wintertime desert environment, they provided an opportunity
synoptic-scale Mediterranean disturbances, this rainfall was for us to study this area (Chakraborty et al,
associated with frontal activity, modified by the local 2006). Most of the wintertime rainfall events
orography.
are associated with southeastward-propagating
Mediterranean disturbances. Formation of a sub-
synoptic cyclone over heated land owing to such
1. Introduction
a disturbance, however, had not yet been detected
In spite of the usually dry and hot weather, a and analyzed before our current study, although
small number of sudden events of extreme ad- polar lows over high-latitude oceans on the polar
verse weather with heavy rainfall and flood, side of the frontal region in cold seasons have
which has high social impacts, affect the Saudi been well studied (Harley, 1960; Businger and
Arabian region during winter. This type of winter Reed, 1989; Yanase et al, 2002; Fu et al, 2004).
disturbances associated with heavy precipitation The primary objective of this paper is to ex-
over this region have received little attention, plore the characteristics of a subsynoptic cyclone
despite the fact that Mediterranean and adjacent formed over Saudi Arabia using high-resolution
regions have been widely explored during the last datasets. We have placed special emphasis on the
few decades (Reiter, 1975; Hoskins and Pedder, 5 January 2002 rainfall event in our present study
116 A. Chakraborty et al

because of the formation of a subsynoptic-scale

cyclone. A brief description of the dataset is
presented in Sect. 2, a synoptic situation and a
description of the characteristics of a subsynoptic
cyclone are presented in Sect. 3, and the discus-
sion and summary appear in Sect. 4.

2. Data
In this study, we used Global Precipitation Cli-
matology Project (GP C P ) daily rainfall data to
observe the precipitation pattern associated with
these winter disturbances. An objectively ana-
lyzed six-hour global dataset provided by the
Japan Meteorological Agency (JMA ) was also
used to explore the mechanism of cyclone forma-
tion. This global analysis (GA NA L ) dataset con-
tains sea-level pressures, geopotential heights, air
temperatures, winds, and relative humidity with
1.25
 1.25
grid point spacing, and 23 vertical
levels from the surface to the top of the atmo-
sphere. As a typical case, an event on 5 January
2002 is explored in detail in the next section.

3. Synoptic situation and characteristics

of a subsynoptic cyclone
The Mediterranean Sea and adjacent land has the
highest concentration of observed cyclogenesis in
the world (Pettersen, 1956; Radinovic, 1987) and
many such cyclones travel eastward (Trigo et al,
2002). These eastward-moving Mediterranean
disturbances occasionally elongate toward north-
western Saudi Arabia. On 5 January 2002,
southern Saudi Arabia was dominated by a
strong high-pressure system (Fig. 1a) with cold
air mass. A synoptic low-pressure system travel-
ing eastward from the Mediterranean brought
moist warm air toward the mountainous part of Fig. 1. 925 hPa geopotential height (in m) along with wind
fields (in m s1 ). Shading shows local orography in km
Saudi Arabia. This advancing moist air mass
replaces a retreating cold air mass and as a result,
a warm front (AB) developed at 00 UTC 5 (Harley, 1960). On 5 January 2002, local orogra-
January 2002 over this region (Fig. 2a). It is phy helped to intensify this front and to develop
depicted by the maximum value of the tempera- a mesoscale cyclone (Fig. 1b) by organizing dis-
ture gradient region where cold and warm air tinct air currents and internal near-surface frontal
masses interact (Jing et al, 2004). Near the front, boundaries. This occurred because this region
the temperature gradient is distorted by the effect is the best place for convective instability to be
of the local topography to create an extremely released, since both ingredients (convective
large value center (Fig. 2b) with enhanced frontal available potential energy and the initial ascent)
circulation. This type of enhanced frontal circu- are guaranteed (Jansa et al, 1995, 1996; Doswell
lation is also observed in case of polar lows et al, 1998; Ramis et al, 1998; Romero et al,
 A cyclone over Saudi Arabia on 5 January 2002 117

Fig. 2. 925 hPa
qffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffi temperature gradient
T ¼

@T 2
@T 2  1
@x þ @y in units of K m . AB represents the Fig. 3. Linearly interpolated daily GPCP precipitation
in mm
frontal region

1998; Buzzi and Foschini, 2000; Ferretti et al, As the winds moved downslope, they stretch-
2000). The uplift of a warm moist westerly flow ed vertically and produced cyclonic vorticity
along the frontal zone is enhanced by a strong (Holton, 1992); as a result, a subsynoptic cyclone
topographic gradient and thus heavy precipita- was formed (Fig. 1b). We named this short-lived
tion occurs (Fig. 3). mesoscale cyclone over Saudi Arabia associated
118 A. Chakraborty et al

with an eastward-moving Mediterranean dis- the Mediterranean disturbance quite obvious.

turbance an ‘‘Arabian cyclone.’’ We found that The combined effect of orographic forcing and
the movement of rainfall events (Fig. 3a–c) latent heat release on the flow upstream from the
makes an association of the Arabian cyclone with orography strongly influences the precipitation

Fig. 4. Spatial distributions of (a) vorticity (105 s1 ), (b) horizontal advection term (1011 s2 ), (c) stretching term
(1011 s2 ) of 925 hPa at 06 UTC 5 January 2002, (a0 ) same as (a), but for 12 UTC, (b0 ) same as (b), but for 12 UTC,
and (c0 ) same as (c), but for 12 UTC
 A cyclone over Saudi Arabia on 5 January 2002 119

Fig. 5. Vertical cross-section along the vortex center: (a) vorticity (105 s1 ), (b) temperature deviation (
C), (c) height
deviation (m) at 06 UTC 5 January 2002, (a0 ) same as (a), but for 12 UTC, (b0 ) same as (b), but for 12 UTC, and (c0 ) same as
(c), but for 12 UTC
120 A. Chakraborty et al

amount and its distribution (Fig. 3) via modifica- With the eastward movement of the Mediterranean
tion of mesoscale cyclone structures and rain- disturbance, the mesoscale cyclone associated
bands (Buzzi et al, 1998; Romero et al, 2000). with the front (Figs. 1c and 2c) moved eastward

Fig. 6. Vertical cross-section along the vortex center: (a) total water (shaded) and smoothed condensational heating (K=hr),
(b) potential temperature (shaded) and the smoothed vertical velocity (m s1 ) where solid lines denote updraft and dashed
lines downdraft, (c) vertical stability @
e =@p < 0 [K (100 hPa)1 ] of the layer between 850 and 925 hPa at 06 UTC 5 January
2002, (a0 ) same as (a), but for 12 UTC, (b0 ) same as (b), but for 12 UTC, and (c0 ) same as (c), but for 12 UTC
 A cyclone over Saudi Arabia on 5 January 2002 121

and eventually lost intensity owing to the lack of of the vortex show that the Arabian cyclone’s
moist air supply. center is associated with a descent (Fig. 6b
To understand the development mechanism and b0 ), which indicates a possibility that the
of the Arabian cyclone, we examined its vor- temperature of the core is affected by adiabatic
ticity dynamics. The contribution of each term warming. The ascending and descending motions
in the vorticity equation to the time change rate around the Arabian cyclone look somewhat simi-
of vorticity was examined where the vertical lar to those reported by Harrold and Browning
vorticity equation in an isobaric coordinate is (1969). The distribution of vertical stability
written as @
e =@p,
e is the potential temperature evalu-
@& ated for the 850–925 hPa layers, shows that the
¼ ~
Vh  r ~h ð& þ f Þ ! @& ð& þ f Þr ~h  ~ Vh lower-level atmosphere of the Arabian cyclone is
@t |fflfflfflfflfflfflfflfflfflfflfflfflffl{zfflfflfflfflfflfflfflfflfflfflfflfflffl} @p |fflfflfflfflfflfflfflfflfflfflfflfflffl{zfflfflfflfflfflfflfflfflfflfflfflfflffl} convectively unstable (Fig. 6c and c0 ) owing to
Horizontal |fflffl{zfflffl} Stretching
advection Vertical
advection
warm air advection.
 
^ @~Vh ~
 k  rh  ! þ D& ð1Þ
@p |{z} 4. Discussion and conclusions
|fflfflfflfflfflfflfflfflfflfflfflfflfflfflfflfflfflffl{zfflfflfflfflfflfflfflfflfflfflfflfflfflfflfflfflfflffl} Frictional
Tilting A subsynoptic cyclone is discussed for the first
time over Saudi Arabia on 5 January 2002 when
Our analysis shows that stretching and hori- widespread rainfall occurred over the mountain-
zontal advection terms in the vorticity equation ous Jeddah region. Our case study for that date
(Fig. 4) are the major contributors to vorticity shows that a warm front developed over Saudi
dynamics while the contributions from vertical Arabia owing to the replacement of cold air by
advection and tilting are relatively minor. The warm and moist air from the eastward-propagat-
horizontal advection term (Fig. 4b and b0 ) con- ing Mediterranean disturbance. The low-level
tributes only to shifting the vorticity pattern and baroclinicity developed due to the release of la-
does not contribute to amplifying the vorticity. tent heat by the warm air ascent. Local orography
Thus, the stretching term plays the dominant further enhanced this process. Owing to vorticity-
role in the formation of the Arabian cyclone stretching, a mesoscale cyclone developed on
(Fig. 4c and c0 ). the lee side of the mountain. Widespread rainfall
Positive vorticity associated with the Arabian with a maximum near Jeddah was due to the
cyclone is confined below 700 hPa (Fig. 5a combined effect of a warm front and orography.
and a0 ), showing that it is a lower-tropospheric Rainfall on the lee side of a mountain is asso-
phenomenon, like the polar low above a warm ciated with the mesoscale cyclone we named an
ocean (Shapiro et al, 1987; Yanase et al, 2004; Arabian cyclone. This type of event produces
Fu et al, 2004). The vorticity has a maximum severe weather conditions with heavy rainfall
value of 3.5  105 s1 at 06 UTC and 4.2  and floods, and thus presents a critical forecast-
105 s1 at 12 UTC in the lower troposphere ing challenge. Further analysis of the Arabian
(Fig. 5b and b0 ). The temperature deviations rela- cyclone using a mesoscale model is important
tive to the horizontal mean from 35
E to 55
E to better understanding of disastrous floods over
shows that it has a warm core below 800 hPa. the arid-semiarid Arabian region.
The height deviation is also confined below
800 hPa but has a slight tilt with height toward
the west (Fig. 5c and c0 ). Acknowledgments
A large amount of total water was observed in The present work was supported by the Revolutionary
the lower troposphere above the vortex center Research Project (PR2002) of the Ministry of Education,
(Fig. 6a and a0 ). Significant condensational heat- Culture, Sports, Science and Technology (MEX T ) of Japan
ing occurred over the vortex region at 06 UTC through Mitsubishi Heavy Industries Ltd. Comments and
but the same was observed a little to the west. suggestions from Professors B. N. Goswami, Lance Leslie
and T. N. Krishnamurti, and to the technical editor Mary
This condensational heating was essential to its
Golden to improve this manuscript are greatly acknowl-
development within a timespan of a few hours. edged. We are thankful to Mr. M Harada, K. Muta, Mrs.
The vertical structure of the potential tempera- J. Moriyama, and H. Sakuma for their support in carrying
ture and the vertical velocity along the center out this research.
122 A. Chakraborty et al: A cyclone over Saudi Arabia on 5 January 2002

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