Mesoscale Group

Sting jets in severe Northern European windstorms

Dr Suzanne Gray
Dr Oscar Martínez-Alvarado
Dr Laura Baker

Sting jets occur in rapidly deepening extratropical cyclones leading to localised regions of extremely damaging winds. Although their existence has only recently been recognised, it has been shown that the winds that constitute the sting jet descend from the region near the bent-back warm front, which marks the 'tail' of the characteristic 'hook' of the cloud head, hence their name.

Despite their potential significance as an output of weather prediction, current numerical weather prediction (NWP) models are unable to explicitly resolve this phenomenon apparently due to a poor vertical resolution. This fact makes it desirable to develop diagnostics for the prediction of sting jets. Nevertheless, the number of case studies so far is limited and there are still various unanswered questions concerning the physical processes involved in the development of sting jets. For example, evaporative cooling and slantwise convection are two processes that are known to have an important role in the occurrence of sting jets. However, it remains to be quantitatively determined the relative importance of these processes.