Does More Moisture in the Atmosphere Lead to More Intense Rains?

It is typically interpreted that more moisture in the atmosphere leads to more intense rains. This notion may be supported, for example, by taking a scatterplot between rain and column precipitable water. The present paper suggests, however, that the main consequence of intense rains with more moist...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:Journal of the atmospheric sciences 2022-03, Vol.79 (3), p.663-681
Main Authors: Yano, Jun-Ichi, Manzato, Agostino
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
Atmosphere
Atmospheric precipitations
Catastrophic events
Clouds
Gauges
Investigations
Moisture
Moisture effects
Nonlinear Sciences
Precipitable water
Rain
Rain gauges
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Summary:It is typically interpreted that more moisture in the atmosphere leads to more intense rains. This notion may be supported, for example, by taking a scatterplot between rain and column precipitable water. The present paper suggests, however, that the main consequence of intense rains with more moisture in the atmosphere is that there is a higher chance of occurrence rather than an increase in the expected magnitude. This tendency equally applies to any rains above 1 mm (6 h) −1 to a lesser extent. The result is derived from an analysis of 33 local rain gauge station data and a shared sounding over Friuli Venezia Giulia, northeast Italy.
ISSN:0022-4928
1520-0469
DOI:10.1175/JAS-D-21-0117.1