Hunting for gravity waves in non-orographic winter storms using 3+ years of regional surface air pressure network and radar observations

Allen, Luke R.; Yuter, Sandra E.; Miller, Matthew A.; Tomkins, Laura M.

doi:https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-25-1765-2025

Articles | Volume 25, issue 3

https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-25-1765-2025

© Author(s) 2025. This work is distributed under
the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 License.

https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-25-1765-2025

© Author(s) 2025. This work is distributed under
the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 License.

Articles | Volume 25, issue 3

Research article

|

07 Feb 2025

Research article |

| 07 Feb 2025

Hunting for gravity waves in non-orographic winter storms using 3+ years of regional surface air pressure network and radar observations

Luke R. Allen, Sandra E. Yuter, Matthew A. Miller, and Laura M. Tomkins

Data sets

Data for "Hunting for gravity waves in non-orographic winter storms using 3+ years of regional surface air pressure networks and radar observations" Luke Allen et al. https://doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.11373040

Data for Objective identification of pressure wave events from networks of 1-Hz, high-precision sensors Matthew Miller and Luke Allen https://doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.8136536

Video supplement

2023/04/01 KBUF radar 4-panel animation Luke R. Allen et al. https://doi.org/10.5446/67635

2021/02/18 KOKX radar 4-panel animation Luke R. Allen et al. https://doi.org/10.5446/67765

2023/04/05 KBUF radar 4-panel animation Luke R. Allen et al. https://doi.org/10.5446/67633

Short summary

Atmospheric gravity waves (GWs) are air oscillations in which buoyancy is the restoring force, and they may enhance precipitation under certain conditions. We used 3+ seasons of pressure data to identify GWs with wavelengths ≤ 170 km in the Toronto and New York metropolitan areas in the context of snow storms. We found only six GW events during snow storms, suggesting that GWs on those scales are uncommon at the two locations during snow storms and, thus, do not often enhance snowfall.