Relations among some characteristics of rainfall over the reference area of about 4, 000 km2 around the Suzuka mountains and meteorological conditions are statistically studied. The elements mainly analyzed are 6 hour precipitations at about 50 points in the area and the serological data at Hamamatsu both of which cover 463 days in total (every day) during three successive warm seasons (1972-1974) and also 87 heavy rainfall days in total with the maximum daily precipitations not less than 100mm in the area during 11 years (1967-1977).
For about half of the heavy rainfall days, the maximum daily precipitation occurred in the neighbourhood of Mt. Gozaisho, a peak of the mountains; it can be said that the orographic effect on the observed rainfall in this area is significant. The importance of winds in the lower and middle troposphere for the rainfall is mainly pointed out. In about half of the cases having a southerly wind component in the lower troposphere. rain falls over the area. As the winds become strong, the rate of occurrence of rainfall tends to increase and rainfall area tends to widen. In most of the cases with a weak wind, precipitation is small, though intense rain with a total maximum of about 100mm falls occasionally.
The maximum frequency of rainfall occurs in the cases of southeasterly and southwesterly winds, in which average convective stabilities are nearest to neutral and most unstable respectively.
The maximum precipitation in the neighbourhood of the ridge appears frequently in the cases with wind direction from nearly southeast in the lower layer. The other maxima appear on the whole frequently over the windward sides of the ridge for the wind directions, especially around southeast and southwest, in the lower layer. Though there are the maxima also on the leeward sides, those are considerably near to the ridge. These tendencies become distinct in the cases with large rainfall areas and large maxima.
Correlation between 6 hour precipitation on the ridge and wind speed in the lower layer (900mb) is high in the wind direction from southeast or around there. One of the reasons why the precipitation, especially daily precipitation, is generally large on mountains, would be because rain with not so high intensity continues for a long time at least as long as nearly southeasterly strong wind is prevalent, though there are some exceptions.
When winds across the mountains flow from Ise Bay in the lower layer, the points of maximum precipitation tend to shift northward along the mountains according to the increase of southerly wind component. Further, in those cases, the points of maximum precipitation tend to shift eastward according to the increase of the vertical change of wind direction (ordinarily winds veer with the altitude).
When winds flow from Ise Bay in the lower layer, the correlation coefficient between wind speed and maximum precipitation is generally positive. The rate of increase of the precipitation with wind speed tends to become large according to the increase of southerly wind component. Concerning the dependence of rainfall on convective stability, the rate of increase tends to become large according to the lowering of the stability, but rain can fall considerably heavily under any condition of stability, probably except in the case of high stable state. Furthermore, the more unstable the states become, the more frequent the cases with smaller rainfall areas are; while the more stable, the more frequent the cases with larger ones.
View full abstract