Study of intensity, duration and type of flood mechanism thunderstorm by using Tabriz radar images

In recent years, flood producing thunderstorms have caused flood with severe human and financial damage in northwestern Iran, especially eastern Azarbaijan. In this research, we tried to obtain new and more accurate methods for acquiring knowledge about thunderstorms types. According to the weather reports, the data set containing five flood cases with twenty precipitable cells have been extracted in the area covered by Tabriz radar. Radar maximum reflectivity and its vertical cut products are used for detecting type, duration and intensity of thunderstorms. In addition, by using upper air data from sounding and General Forecast System (GFS) data with resolution of 0.5° × 0.5°, some instability indices such as K index, Showalter index, Total-Total index, Convective Available Potential Energy (CAPE), Bulk Richardson Number (BRN), Helicity, Energy – Helicity index, Vertical wind shear and precipitable water have been investigated. Results showed that the most flood producing thunderstorms were Single cell or Multi cells which after their movement and merging together, formed complex cells.