• Wind and Structures
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• v.15 no.2
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• pp.163-176
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• 2012

Damaging winds, associated with a variety of weather phenomena, are frequently experienced in New Zealand. Observations and modelling of two recent extreme wind events; the Taranaki tornado outbreak of July 2007, and the Greymouth down-slope easterly wind storm of July 2008 are described in detail here. Post-event engineering damage surveys, rare for New Zealand, were done for these storms and the results are summarized here. Finally, the issue of sampling extreme wind events is raised and the need to include detailed numerical modelling analysis to understand wind gust climatologies at observing sites and extending these to wider regions is discussed.

• International Union of Geodesy and Geophysics Korean Journal of Geophysical Research
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• v.25 no.1
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• pp.57-81
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• 1997

Numerical prediction of nocturnal thermal high in summer of the 1995 near Taegu city located in a basin has been carried out by a non-hydrostatic numerical model over complex terrain through one-way double nesting technique in the Z following coordinate system. Under the prevailing westerly winds, vertical turbulent fluxes of momentum and heat over mountains for daytime hours are quite strong with a large magnitude of more than $120W/\textrm{m}^2$, but a small one of $5W/\textrm{m}^2$ at the surface of the basin. Convective boundary layer (CBL) is developed with a thickness of about 600m over the ground in the lee side of Mt. Hyungje, and extends to the edge of inland at the interface of land sea in the east. Sensible heat flux near the surface of the top of the mountain is $50W/\textrm{m}^2$, but its flux in the basin is almost zero. Convergence of sensible heat flux occurs from the ground surface toward the atmosphere in the lower layer, causing the layer over the mountain to be warmed up, but no convergance of the flux over the basin results from the significant mixing of air within the CBL. As horizontal transport of sensible heat flux from the top of the mountain toward over the basin results in the continuous accumulation of heat with time, enhancing air temperature at the surface of the basin, especially Taegu city to be higher than $39.3^{\circ}C$. Since latent heat fluxes are $270W/\textrm{m}^2$ near the top of the mountain and $300W/\textrm{m}^2$ along the slope of the mountain and the basin, evaporation of water vapor from the surface of the basin is much higher than one from the mountain and then, horizontal transport of latent heat flux is from the basin toward the mountain, showing relative humidity of 65 to 75% over the mountain to be much greater than 50% to 55% in the basin. At night, sensible heat fluxes have negative values of $-120W/\textrm{m}^2$ along the slope near the top of the mountain and $-50W/\textrm{m}^2$ at the surface of the basin, which indicate gain of heat from the lower atmosphere. Nighttime radiative cooling produces a shallow nocturnal surface inversion layer with a thickness of about 100m, which is much lower than common surface inversion layer, and lifts extremely heated air masses for daytime hours, namely, a warm pool of $34^{\circ}C$ to be isolated over the ground surface in the basin. As heat transfer from the warm pool in the lower atmosphere toward the ground of the basin occurs, the air near the surface of the basin does not much cool down, resulting in the persistence of high temperature at night, called nocturnal thermal high or tropical night. High relative humidity of 75% is found at the surface of the basin under the moderate wind, while slightly low relative humidity of 60% is along the eastern slope of the high mountain, due to adiabatic heating by the srong downslope wind. Air temperature near the surface of the basin with high moisture in the evening does not get lower than that during the day and the high temperature produces nocturnal warming situation.