A Climatological Study of Thermally Driven Wind Systems of the
US Intermountain West
Jebb Q. Stewart1, C. David Whiteman2, W. James Steenburgh1, and Xindi Bian2
1
NOAA/Cooperative Institute for Regional Prediction and Department of Meteorology
University of Utah
Salt Lake City, Utah
2
Pacific Northwest National Laboratory
Richland, Washington
Submitted to Bulletin of the American Meteorological Society
Proposal submission date: 06 June 2001
Planned article submission date: 1 August 2001
Corresponding Author:
W. James Steenburgh
University of Utah
Department of Meteorology
145 South 1460 East Room 819
Salt Lake City, UT 84112-0110
(801) 581-8727
e-mail: jimsteen@met.utah.eduABSTRACT
The Intermountain West of the United States, because of its dry continental climate, is an
area where local thermally driven winds occur frequently. This paper documents the diurnal
evolution of thermally driven valley, slope, and lake winds for summer fair-weather conditions
in four regions of the Intermountain West where dense wind networks have been operated.
Because of the diverse topography in these regions, the results are expected to be broadly
representative of variations in thermally driven wind climates throughout the Intermountain
West. The regions include the Wasatch Front Valleys of northern Utah, the Snake River Plain of
Idaho, the Southern Nevada basin and range province, and central Arizona where the Salt and
Gila Valleys run out onto a plain. The analyses focus on the interplay of valley, slope, and lake
winds, as well as the frequency and regularity of the winds.
In general, on fair weather days, winds in all four regions exhibit a consistent direction from day
to day at a given hour. A measure of this wind consistency is defined. The nighttime hours
exhibit a high consistency, the daytime hours a moderate consistency, and transition periods a
low consistency. The low consistency during the transition periods reflects day-to-day variations
in the timing of thermally driven wind system reversals. Thermally driven circulations are
similar in the four regions, but the Wasatch Front Valleys are influenced by lake breezes from
the adjacent Great Salt Lake, the Snake River Plain is influenced by wind channeling from
nearby mountains, Southern Nevada has both local and region scale thermally driven winds that
are produced by the distinctive Basin and Range topography, and winds in Central Arizona
experience regional-scale circulations associated with regional scale contrasts in elevation and/or
surface heating.1. Introduction
The complex topography of the western United States produces a wide variety of thermally
and dynamically driven mesoscale wind systems. Historically, the knowledge and understanding
of such systems has been limited by a variety of factors, including a lack of observational data.
In the Intermountain West (IW, Fig. 1), the semiarid area between the Cascade-Sierra and Rocky
Mountain chains, dry air and soil conditions promote intense daytime solar heating and nighttime
radiation loss resulting in large diurnal temperature changes that produce strong thermally driven
winds (Carter 2000). Thermally driven wind systems in mountainous terrain consist of three
major wind circulations: plain-basin or plain-mountain winds, valley winds, and slope winds.
The different phasing and superposition of the valley and slope wind systems produces
clockwise and counterclockwise diurnal rotations on the right and left banks or sidewalls of a
valley, respectively, when looking up a valley (Hawkes 1947, Whiteman 1990). In some regions
of the IW such as the Wasatch Front Valleys (WFV) of northern Utah where mountains are
located adjacent to lakes (Fig. 2a), a forth diurnal wind system is apparent, the lake-land breeze.
The interaction of these four wind systems creates complex flow patterns that are a part of the
everyday winds in complex terrain. Understanding of these wind systems is valuable to boundary
layer and air pollution meteorologists, fire weather forecasters and operational meteorologists.
Over the past few years high-density data from more than 50 independent meteorological
networks has been gathered as part of MesoWest, a collection of cooperative mesonets in the
western United States (Horel et al. 2000). MesoWest is managed jointly by the NOAA
Cooperative Institute for Regional Prediction at the University of Utah and the Salt Lake City
National Weather Service Forecast Office and presently collects data from over 2500 surface
stations in the western United States. In this paper, we illustrate the diurnal evolution of complex
terrain winds in the IW using MesoWest data from 1997 to 1999.
2. Areas of study
The four study regions were chosen because they have high density observations and
illustrate typical thermally driven wind systems of the IW (Fig. 1). Here we introduce the
regions, in turn, going counterclockwise around the IW.
The Salt Lake, Tooele and Rush Valleys, designated here as the Wasatch Front Valleys or
WFV (Fig. 2a) are bounded by three north-south mountain ranges that extend above 3000 m
mean sea level (MSL) – the Wasatch, Oquirrh and Stansbury Mountains1. The largest of the
valleys, the Salt Lake Valley, is a broad valley containing the extensive Salt Lake City urban
area. This valley, bounded to the east by the Wasatch Mountains and to the west by the Oquirrh
Mountains, drains northward into the Great Salt Lake (GSL, 1300 m). The Salt Lake Valley is
generally considered to be bounded to the south by a transverse mountain range (the Traverse
Mountains) that extends between the Wasatch and Oquirrh Mountains. In reality, however, the
Jordan River which drains the valley flows northward from the Utah Valley through a narrow
gap in the Traverse Range. Several major canyons issue into the Salt Lake Valley from the
Wasatch Mountains. The Tooele and Rush Valleys are a pair of valleys that are bounded by the
Oquirrh Mountains on the east, the Stansbury Mountains on the west, and the Tintic and Sheep
Rock Mountains on the south. The valleys, like the adjacent Salt Lake Valley, drain northward
into the GSL. A transverse mountain range culminating in a peak called South Mountain
separates these two valleys into an upper basin with minimum elevation of 1560 m (the Rush
Valley) and a lower valley (the Tooele Valley) that drains directly into the GSL. Several low
passes on the southeast boundary of the Rush Valley connect the Rush Valley to the Salt Lake
Valley. The region is semiarid, with vegetation consisting mainly of grasses and low shrubs
(mainly sagebrush). The GSL, with an average depth of only 4.8 m, exhibits little seasonal
1
Unless otherwise indicated, all elevations specified in the remainder of this paper are relative to mean sea-level.
temperature lag relative to the mean daily air temperatures in the lake’s surroundings
(Steenburgh et al. 2000).
The Snake River Plain (SRP) is a broad, flat-floored, arc-shaped valley in southern Idaho that
slopes downward to the west from 1500 to 900 m (Fig. 2b). The valley is bounded to the north
by the central Idaho Mountains, which reach elevations above 3000 m, and to the south by
several mountain ranges that reach elevations of around 2100 m. Major canyons issue onto the
SRP from the surrounding mountains, with three especially prominent canyons entering the east
end of the SRP from the north. The SRP is arid or semiarid with vegetation consisting of short
grasses and shrubs (mainly sagebrush) at the lower elevations and low density coniferous forests
at higher elevations.
Terrain in Southern Nevada (Fig. 2c) slopes steeply upward from southwest to northeast,
culminating in the Great Basin, an extensive intermountain basin with basin floor elevations near
1500 m located between the Sierra-Cascade Mountains and the Rocky Mountains. The Southern
Nevada landscape is part of the basin and range province, a geomorphological province
characterized by many short north-south oriented mountain ranges that reach elevations around
3000 m and are separated by broad alluvial basins. The lowest elevations in the Southern
Nevada region are to the southwest in California’s Death Valley (-86 m) and to the southeast
along the Colorado River (360 m). The climate is semiarid except on the highest mountain
ranges. Vegetation is sparse, with short grasses and shrubs at mid elevations and low density
forests at the highest elevations. Barren ground and arid vegetation are found at lower
elevations.
The central Arizona region lies to the west of the Sierra Ancha (Fig 2d). The general terrain
slopes from the Sierra Ancha (1900 m) southwesterward to the Yuma Desert (200 m). The
Mazatzal Mountains are a 1500 m barrier between the Sierra Ancha and Phoenix (PHX). From
the Sierra Ancha and surrounding mountain ranges, several canyons issue into the lower Phoenix
basin, including the Black Canyon north of Phoenix through which Interstate 17 runs. Central
Arizona is arid, with intense sunlight throughout much of the summer. Only sparse grass
vegetation survives the lack of precipitation leaving large areas of barren ground. Short shrubs
and grasses survive at mid elevations, and low density coniferous forests are found at the highest
elevations.
3. Data and methods
Surface observations were provided by MesoWest, a collection of more than 50
independently operated mesonets across the western U.S. (Splitt and Horel 1998; Horel et al.
2000; Tucker 1997). The MesoWest network provides high density observations in regions that
are often not well sampled by the conventional Federal Aviation Administration/National
Weather Service/ Department of Defense networks. Data were collected via phone modems,
internet connections, or radio transmissions and archived at the University of Utah where an
automated quality control process removes erroneous values.
Additional processing steps were implemented to prepare the data for analysis of thermally
driven circulations in the study regions. First, data for the summer months June through August
were extracted from the MesoWest archive for the years 1997-1999. The summer period was
chosen because synoptic flows are typically weak then and valley flows are more pronounced.
Second, any sub-hourly-averaged data (e.g., 5 min, 15 min, or 30 min) were averaged to one
hour, using the convention that the time indicated represented the beginning of the hour of
interest. Third, time periods with weak winds aloft and clear to partly cloudy skies were selected
for analysis since these are times when thermally driven flows are most pronounced. Such
periods were identified as the 12-hour blocks centered on the rawinsonde observation times
(2200 - 0900 LST for the 0400 LST soundings and 1000 - 2100 LST for the 1600 LST
soundings2), for which the rawinsonde 700-hPa wind speeds were  7 m s-1. The 12-hour blocks
were included in the climatology only if the total daily solar radiation was  65% of the
theoretical extraterrestrial solar radiation for that day as computed from a solar model
(Whiteman and Allwine 1986). The solar radiation criteria was considered to applied to the
2200-2100 LST period that corresponds to the rawinsonde time periods above. These criteria are
similar to those used to identify periods of thermally driven flows in previous research in the
Intermountain West (Whiteman et al. 1999). Locations for the 700 hPa wind and solar radiation
data are listed in Table 1. All hourly observations from the 12-hour blocks meeting the criteria
described above were grouped into hourly bins and processed to determine a mean vector wind
and a mean arithmetic wind speed for that hour of the day. The mean hourly vector winds were
then plotted on maps and a video loop was prepared to animate the hourly maps to investigate
the evolution of the hourly winds during a mean thermally driven wind day. Then, a method was
developed to determine the fair weather day-to-fair weather day variance of wind direction for
each hour of the day. This was accomplished by defining wind consistency, defined as the ratio
of the vector mean and arithmetic mean wind speeds for each hour of the day. If the wind blows
from the same direction at a given hour on all fair weather days, the consistency is one; if it is
equally likely from all directions, or blows half the time from one direction and half the time
from the opposite, the consistency is 0. This definition of wind consistency is similar to Panofsky
and Brier's (1965) definition of wind persistence, the steadiness of the wind over a continuous
2Soundings are launched an hour before 0000 and 1200 UTC soundings. Data from the lower elevations of the
soundings (below 700 hPa) are applied to the hour of launch.
time period. We prefer the term wind consistency because we deal with a discontinuous data set
(only fair weather days and observations at a given hour of the day).
4. Results
a. Wasatch Front Valleys
The Wasatch Front Valleys are located south of the GSL where Hawkes (1947), Smidy
(1972), Astling (1986) and Stone and Hoard (1990a, 1990b) investigated the interactions
between the diurnal land/lake and mountain wind systems. These previous studies did not,
however, attempt to isolate the thermally driven component of the flow by considering only
situations with clear skies and weak synoptic-scale forcing.
Winds in the Wasatch Front Valleys are the result of lake/land breezes, slope flows, and
valley flows. During the night (0400 LST), downslope and down-valley winds are observed in
the Salt Lake and Tooele Valleys (Fig, 3a). The down-valley winds are likely reinforced by
offshore flow induced by the GSL. Since the Tooele Valley slopes little near the GSL and
steepens as one moves towards South Mountain, weaker winds (1-3 m s-1) are found near the
GSL, while stronger winds (3-4 m s-1) are found farther up valley. In the Rush Valley, an
elevated basin with few low gaps for winds to exit, the slope of the land is gentle except near the
mountains. This results in light (~1 m s-1) downslope winds over lower portions of the valley
that converge into the basin. At higher elevation sites within the Rush Valley, stronger
downslope winds (1.5 to 4 m s-1) are found. Along the South Mountain divide, 4-5 m s-1
southerly winds illustrate the nocturnal flow of air across the divide from the Rush Valley to the
Tooele Valley. The southwest wind observed along I-15 near the summit of the Traverse
Mountains in the Salt Lake Valley illustrates a similar flow pattern between the Utah and Salt
Lake Valleys (small-scale terrain effects result in southwesterly rather than southerly flow at this
site). These conditions persist until the morning transition period.
The morning transition period starts at sunrise (~0600 LST) and continues through about
1100 LST. During this period, downslope and down-valley winds weaken and eventually
become upslope and up-valley, with the slope flow transition preceding the valley flow transition
by about 2 h. At 1000 LST, the mid-point of the morning transition period, winds over the Salt
Lake Valley and eastern Tooele Valley develop an upslope component (Fig. 3b) while the downvalley flow begins to weaken. A lake breeze begins to move into the northern Tooele Valley.
This circulation feature is first observed near the GSL shoreline at 0700 LST and advances
southward through the Tooele Valley to South Mountain by 1100 LST (not shown). The
southward lake-breeze penetration is slower over the Salt Lake Valley (Fig. 3b).
During the afternoon regime, circulations within the Wasatch Front Valleys are the result of
interactions between upslope flows, up-valley flows, and the GSL breeze. At 1600 UTC,
observations in the Tooele Valley show a coupling between upslope and up-valley flows, which
are in phase with the GSL breeze and produce a diffluent up-valley wind pattern (Fig. 3c). A
similar but weaker flow pattern in which upslope flows are more dominant is observed over the
Salt Lake Valley. The anomalous westerly flow at Magna (QMG) in the Salt Lake Valley is the
result of the interaction of the GSL breeze with the local terrain. In contrast to the Tooele and
Salt Lake Valleys, there is little evidence of upslope and up-valley winds within the Rush Valley.
Instead, the GSL-breeze crosses the South Mountain divide, producing strong northerly flow
throughout the Rush Valley (Fig. 3c), providing an example of how an external thermally driven
wind system can overwhelm local slope and valley flows.
The evening transition period begins around sunset (~1900 LST). Within three hours of
sunset (2200 LST), downslope and down-valley flows are already well developed (Fig. 3d). In
fact, downslope and down-valley flows reach their strongest magnitude during this period. In
contrast to the morning transition which required 5-6 h to complete, the evening transition is
accomplished in only 2-3 h.
Time series from selected observing sites are presented in Figs. 3e-h. Stations on the west
side of the Tooele Valley exhibit a counterclockwise rotation of the wind with time (e.g., RES,
Fig. 3e), while stations on the east side of the valley feature a clockwise rotation (e.g., TOO, Fig.
3f). This is consistent with the conceptual model of the diurnal turning of the winds over valley
sidewalls presented by Hawkes (1947), since the thermally driven lake/land and up/down valley
circulations are in phase and are superimposed on the up/down slope circulations (Whiteman,
2000).
Stations in the middle of the Tooele Valley, such as Erda Airport (POR, Fig. 3g), are
influenced primarily by coupled lake/land and up/down valley flows. At POR the day-to-day
wind consistency at individual hours is above 90% during the nighttime hours when offshore
down-valley flow dominates, then drops to 20% at ~0900 LST due to day-to-day variations in
the time of the reversal of the lake and valley circulations. Consistency increases to near 75%
late in the afternoon (1600 LST) when the lake breeze and up-valley circulation typically are
well developed.
High consistency in nighttime downslope flow over the Tooele Valley also is evident at
Grantsville Reservoir (RES). At ~2100 LST downslope winds are developed and persist for 9-10
hours with a consistency above 90%. The strongest downslope winds (4-5 m s-1) occur during for
the first two hours of this period right after sunset (Figs. 3e,h).
Finally, there are several major canyons that issue into the Salt Lake Valley from the east.
Of these, Parley's Canyon is known to produce strong outflow into the Salt Lake Valley during
the night and early morning hours. The Parley's Canyon (UT5) time series shows that this
outflow develops typically around 1900 LST, reaches peak magnitude around 0200 LST, and
persists overnight until 0900 LST. Such outflow has a consistency of more than 90%.
b. Snake River Plain
A dense network of meteorological observing stations is found on the eastern Snake River
Plain (SRP) in Idaho at the Department of Energy's Idaho National Engineering Laboratory.
These stations have provided data for several climatological studies focused on transport and
diffusion (e.g., Clawson et al. 1989, Clements 1979, Wilkens 1955, and Yanskey et al. 1966).
The Eastern SRP generally experiences plain-parallel flows from either the southwest or the
northeast. Southwesterly flows are caused by the channeling of the prevailing westerlies by the
surrounding mountains or by daytime, thermally driven, up-plain circulations, while
northeasterly flows are caused by channeling of winds from easterly directions or by nocturnal
down-plain flows (Clawson et al.1981). The strong up-valley flow can persist for many hours
after sunset (Clawson et al. 1981). While the typical eastern SRP wind flows are well
documented, little information exists for flow patterns over the central and western SRP and
prior studies have not attempted to isolate the thermally driven flow component.
Although winds in the SRP are generally oriented along the plain's longitudinal axis, they are
also influenced by up- and downslope flows from the adjacent sidewalls and outflow from
canyons that enter the plain from surrounding mountain ranges. During the nocturnal regime
(0300 LST; Fig 4a), 2-4 m s-1 down-plain flows extend along much of the SRP. Downslope flow
and canyon outflow are observed at several locations near adjacent mountain ranges. In the
eastern SRP, winds in the central portion of the plain exhibit a northerly component, apparently
due to downslope flow from the high terrain in the northern half of the SRP.
The morning transition period begins with solar heating shortly after sunrise (~0600 LST).
By 0900 LST, several stations develop up-plain or upslope flow, although downslope and downplain flow persists in the other locations (Fig. 4b). Low level divergence occurs west of IDF as
upslope flows develop on both the north and south sidewalls of the valley (Fig. 4b). The
transition from down- to upslope takes 3-4 h while the down- to up-plain transition takes 5-6 h.
The slope flow transition is quicker in the SRP than in the Wasatch Front Valleys, while the
valley flow reversal is slower.
During the afternoon regime (1500 LST) the up-plain flow develops and strengthens to 3-4
m s-1 along the longitudinal axis and becomes the dominant flow pattern throughout the SRP
(Fig. 4c). Topographic channeling helps to enhance this effect. At the peak of the up-plain flow,
around 1700 LST, it diverges only weakly into the surrounding topography. Stations farther
away from the mountain ranges are the first to develop strong up-plain flow as illustrated by time
series from Howe (HOW), which is located near the Central Idaho Mountains, and Richfield
(RHF), which is closer to the mid-plain axis (Fig. 4e,f). At HOW the south-southeasterly
upslope flow develops around 1000 LST and persists until around 1400 LST when the
southwesterly up-plain flow dominates (Fig. 4e). At RHF the upslope flow also develops at 1000
LST, but is overtaken by the strong up-plain flow at 1200 LST, 2 h earlier than at HOW.
Within an hour of sunset (2100 LST), the evening transition period begins. At 2100 LST,
downslope flows and canyon outflow combine with the developing down-plain flow to produce a
low level convergence zone over the eastern SRP (Fig. 4d). The up/downslope transition takes 1-
2 hours, where as up- to down-plain transition takes 5-6 hours, eventually resulting in the
reestablishment of the evening regime (Fig. 4a).
Time series from selected observing sites in the SRP are presented in Figs. 4e-g. Consistent
with the Hawkes (1947) conceptual model for the diurnal turning of the winds over valley
sidewalls, winds rotate clockwise with time at stations on the north side of the plain (RHF, Fig.
4f) and counterclockwise with time at stations on the south side of the plain (IDF, Fig. 4g).
At RHF and HOW consistency remains above 80% through out the night, like similar
stations in the WFV region (0000-0600 LST; Figs 3g,h; 4e, f). The transition period for slope
flow lasts 3 hours at HOW (Fig 4e) whereas the valley flow transition lasts for 6 hours (e.g.,
RHF; Fig. 4f), with consistency values near or below 40%. During the daytime heating hours
(1200-1800 LST) consistency remains at moderate levels near 60% until the evening transition
period (~2100 LST) when consistency values drop to near 30% at HOW (Fig. 4e) and near 50%
at RHF (Fig. 4f). Once the nocturnal regime is developed, consistency values return to 80%,
completing the cycle.
c. Southern Nevada basin and range province
Winds within the Southern Nevada region are influenced by local thermally driven flows
(i.e., valley and slope flows) as well as regional-scale thermally driven flows (i.e., mountainplain circulations). In the northern half of the study area, where the National Oceanic and
Atmospheric Administration’s Air Resources Laboratory (NOAA/ARL) maintains a dense
meteorological network at the Nevada Test Site, the topography is characterized by a complex
system of mountain ranges separated by broad lowland valleys and basins (Fig. 2c). To the
south, the topography includes the Sheep Range, which reaches elevations of up to 3000 m, and
the Spring Range, which includes 3630 m Mt. Charleson. The Las Vegas Valley is located just
northeast of the Spring Range and runs southeastward to Las Vegas and Lake Mead along the
Colorado River.
Winds during the night are dominated by locally forced downslope and down-valley flows
(0300 LST, Fig. 5a). In the southern half of the study region, downslope flows from the
northeast and southwest converge into Las Vegas, while southwesterly downslope flow is
observed northeast of the Spring Range. Winds in the northern portion of the domain show little
mesoscale organization. Instead, a wide variety of wind directions and speeds are observed due
to the complexity of slope and valley flows that are produced by the complex assortment of
topographic features found in this region.
During the morning transition period, widespread southeasterly-southerly flow develops at
most southern Nevada observing sites, with weak confluence evident over the Nevada Test Site
(0900 LST, Fig. 5b). These flows are thermally-driven regional-scale plain-basin or plainmountain flows that develop after the nocturnal boundary layer erodes and the daytime
convective boundary layer develops in the Intermountain Basin in response to the pressure
contrast between high pressure over the eastern Pacific Ocean and the low pressure that develops
with surface heating over the interior Intermountain West. As a result, a 3-4 m s-1
southwesterly flow eventually dominates the flow pattern over the Nevada Test Site during the
afternoon regime (1500 LST, Fig. 5c). These large-scale southwesterly winds have a high
consistency that during midday exceeds 70% (e.g., DRA, Fig. 5e). In contrast, southeasterly upvalley flow is able to develop over the Las Vegas Valley, a deep and relatively large-scale
lowland feature surrounded by very high topography, particularly to the southwest. This results
in the development of an afternoon convergence zone in the lowland region north of the Spring
Mountains. The Nellis Range observing site (A36), which is located in the central Las Vegas
valley near the base of the lower slopes of the Spring Mountains, experiences up-valley flow at
0900 LST, which reaches 3-4 m s-1 during the afternoon (Fig. 5f). The consistency of this upvalley flow approaches 80% and, in general, afternoon wind consistencies throughout southern
Nevada are higher than those observed over the Wasatch Front Valleys and Snake River Plain
regions (cf. Figs. 3e-h, 4e-g, 5e-g). In addition, some stations, such as Area 2 (A02) at the
Nevada Test Site, have very high consistencies through most of the diurnal cycle, with only
small reductions in consistency during transition periods (Fig. 5g). This suggests that the
transitions from daytime to nighttime flow regimes at this station are regular and relatively rapid.
During the evening transition (2100 LST), the southwesterly flow weakens and nocturnal
drainage flows begin to develop (Fig. 5d). Stations near Las Vegas and within the Las Vegas
Valley are the last to complete the transition, and at 2100 LST are still experiencing strong
southwesterly winds or southeasterly up-valley flow.
d. Central Arizona area
Thermal winds within the central Arizona region can be separated into two categories, those
protected from, and those exposed to the up-valley flow from the Yuma desert. Protected
stations observe a diurnal cycle of wind consistency similar to areas in the WFV and SRP
regions. Exposed stations show similarity to those in the Southern Nevada area with wind
consistency highest during the afternoon. In this region, winds at mountain sites have a high
consistency of nocturnal downslope drainage flow (0300 LST) (Fig. 6a). Sites around Phoenix
show drainage convergence into the low lying areas of the Phoenix basin. Most drainage flows
(downslope and down-valley flows) are 1-2 m s-1. During the night, sites in the two categories
show similar conditions. Within two hours of sunrise (~0530) the morning transition begins with
a transition from downslope to upslope winds and from down-valley to up-valley winds (Fig.
6b). Downslope to upslope transition times (1 h) are comparatively quicker then up- to downvalley transition times (3-4 h). Immediately after the transition, wind speeds pick up to 3-4 m s-1
around the Phoenix area closer to the Yuma desert while winds along the Sierra Ancha remain at
1-2 m s-1. This is the beginning step of segregation of the two categories.
Throughout the afternoon regime (1500 LST) (Fig. 6c) upslope and up-valley flows
strengthen near Phoenix and close to the west desert reaching 5 m s-1 and higher. Especially
slopes exposed to the southwest. Wind speeds at stations in the Sierra Ancha remain around 1-2
m s-1. Consistencies at Luke Air Force Base (LUF, Fig 6e) reach 70-80% in the afternoon as the
southwesterlies strengthen to 4.5 m s-1. During this time period, the two categories of stations
become apparent. Stations exposed to up-valley winds from the Yuma desert observe have
higher wind consistencies (~80%) in the afternoon than stations not exposed to this wind, which
develop local upslope and up-valley flows with consistencies of 30-50%.
As soon as the sun sets (~ 1930 LST), the evening transition period begins as upslope winds
reverse to downslope winds in the Sierra Ancha (Fig. 6d). An hour after later sunset the downvalley wind transition begins. The slope wind transition requires about one hour whereas the
valley wind transition takes 3-4 hours. Northern stations are the first to stabilize after the
transition begins while stations near Phoenix observe westerly winds that last 1 hour longer and
then stabilize. After the transition, drainage wind speeds across the area are 1-2 m s-1 with some
mountain station winds reaching 3 m s-1.
The time series in Fig 6 provide additional information on the two categories of winds in the
Central Arizona region, with stations close to the desert exhibiting different wind patterns than
stations in the Sierra Ancha. At EEK in the mountains the downslope winds have high wind
consistency (90 %) and strengthen from 1 to 3 m s-1 throughout the nocturnal period (Fig. 6f).
During the transition from downslope to upslope, wind consistency drops and stays below 50%
during the afternoon regime, with light (1-2 m s-1) upslope flows. This is the same pattern for
many stations along the Sierra Ancha. At STT close to the desert, there is high wind consistency
(~80%) overnight with winds strengthening from 3 to 4 m s-1 (Fig. 6g). During the transition
times consistency drops below 50% and during the afternoon regime wind consistency rebounds
to 80% as upslope winds strengthen to 4.5 m s-1. Several other stations near the desert including
LUF show the high wind consistency off the desert around 13-14 LST indicating that this is an
important feature of the diurnal cycle.
Stations in the southwest Central Arizona area, like the Southern Nevada region and unlike
the WFV and SRP regions, observe 80% wind consistency in the afternoon. The area is similar
to Southern Nevada, but with a desert to the southwest. The thermal wind cycle is heavily
influenced by up-valley winds from the Yuma desert. Stations within the northeastern part of the
Central Arizona Region experience the typical diurnal cycle of wind consistency seen in the
WFV and SRP regions.
5. Discussion
It is interesting to note that well-developed, coupled thermal wind systems have high
consistency in the middle of a broad valley or plain, as illustrated with POR in the Tooele Valley
8 km from the eastern sidewall and 14 km from the western side wall (Fig. 3e). At this site,
winds flow only in two directions with a 180 degree wind reversal. The consistency is high (~90
%) during the night and is moderately high (~60%) during the day.
Large valleys with a constricted outlet can produce strong drainage winds because of
convergence at the outlet. Several stations illustrate this, including UT5 in the WVF (Fig. 3h)
and HOW in the SRP (Fig. 4e).
Lack of data makes it difficult to determine whether the down-plain flow is continuous along
the central valley floor along the entire SRP. Horse Butte (HBT) never exhibits an easterly wind
component, while an easterly component is visible at Boise (BOI) on the west end of the plain
and at RHF on the east end of the plain. Several stations near HBT that did not have an
acceptably long period of record to be included in the figures exhibit results similar to HBT.
HBT, however, is on a hill 300 m above the Snake River. East of HBT, the river turns to the
northwest. Drainage flows from the mountains to the south of HBT and from the buttes to the
west flow to the east into the river gorge, converging with drainage winds from the eastern SRP
and flowing north around the river meander, then continuing westward towards BOI.
6. Conclusions
Diurnal wind patterns and day-to-day wind consistency were analyzed to provide an
improved understanding of the wind patterns and their evolution in the Salt Lake, Tooele and
Rush Valleys, the Snake River Plain, Southern Nevada, and Central Arizona area. Archived
MesoWest data were used for this analysis, and criteria were created to select thermally driven
wind days that could be composited into a mean diurnal pattern. Day-to-day wind consistency
patterns and time series were used to investigate the winds further.3 The wind fields were
animated in video loops to better visualize the diurnal turning of the winds and the interactions
between the various thermally driven wind systems.
The timing of reversals is consistent from area to area. During the morning transition period,
downslope winds changed to upslope winds shortly after sunrise and then the down-valley winds
reversed to up-valley winds. The evening transition period started within an hour after sunset in
all areas. Downslope winds were strongest during the first few hours, and were generally
stronger than the daytime upslope winds. In each of the regions investigated, except as
mentioned in section 5, day-to-day wind consistency on thermally driven wind days was
generally high (~90%) at night, moderate (~60%) during the day, and low (~20%) during the
transition periods. The drop in consistency during transition periods reflects the variation in the
timing of wind reversals from day to day. The moderate consistency throughout the day is
attributed to wind speed and direction variations caused by convection. Diurnal wind rotations on
valley sidewalls were observed in all areas, supporting the conceptual model by Hawkes (1947).
Some stations in Southern Nevada and Central Arizona experienced regional daytime
southwesterly winds that increased their consistency to about 80%.
While there are marked similarities among the diurnal wind patterns and timing of wind
reversals in the areas investigated, each of the areas exhibited unique wind features. Within the
WFV, the land-lake breeze interacts with the other thermally driven wind systems. Within the
SRP there is a distinct channeling effect caused by the terrain. Both Southern Nevada and
Central Arizona thermal winds are strongly controlled in the afternoon by regional southwesterly
winds that blow into the interior of the Intermountain Basin.
Within the southwestern IW, another important thermal wind is observed. Up-valley flow
from the deserts to the southwest of the Southern Nevada and Central Phoenix regions are
observed to reach over 5 m s-1 during the afternoon hours (1300 - 1500 LST) with wind
consistency around 80%. The afternoon winds in these regions are about 20% more consistent
then the afternoon winds in the SRP or WFV regions. Stations such as A02 in the Southern
Nevada region maintain wind consistency over 60% for the entire diurnal cycle with downslope
winds during night and the southerly up-valley winds from the desert during the day (Fig. 6g).
In the Central Arizona region, stations fall into one of two different categories -- those affected
by up-valley winds from the Yuma desert and those that are not. Sites protected from the flow
3
Animations are available at http://www.met.utah.edu/jimsteen/jstewart/mtnwind.html
off the Yuma desert observed thermal winds similar to those in the WFV and SRP regions,
whereas the exposed stations exhibit the higher wind consistencies mentioned above.
These and future analyses will be of value to boundary-layer and air pollution meteorologists,
fire weather forecasters, operational meteorologists and others who are interested in
understanding wind flow patterns in complex terrain.
6. Acknowledgements
MesoWest data were collected and processed by John Horel, Mike Splitt, and Bryan White of
the University of Utah and Larry Dunn and David Zaff of the National Weather Service's Salt
Lake City Forecast Office. We gratefully acknowledge the contribution of organizations
participating in MesoWest. One author (JQS) wishes to acknowledge the support of the Global
Change Education Program for supporting his summer appointment at Pacific Northwest
National Laboratory as part of their Summer Undergraduate Research Education program. This
research was supported by the U.S. Department of Energy, Office of Biological and
Environmental Research, Environmental Sciences Division as part of their Environmental
Meteorology Program under Contract DE-AC06-76RLO 1830 at PNNL. The U. S. Department
of Energy's PNNL is operated by Battelle Memorial Institute.
Figures
Figure 1. Topography of the western United States with study regions annotated. Elevation (m)
based on scale at upper right.
Figure 2. Places and names for each study region for reference. Terrain shading as in Fig. 1. (a)
Wasatch Front Valleys. (b) Snake River Plain. (c) Southern Nevada basin and range province.
(d) Central Arizona.
Figure 3. Mean summer season vector winds in the Wasatch Front Valleys. Full and half barb
denote 1 and 0.5 m s-1, respectively. Terrain shading as in Fig. 1. (a) 0400 LST. (b) 1000 LST.
(c) 1600 LST. (d) 2200 LST (e) RES time series. (f) TOO time series. (g) POR time series. (h)
UT5 time series.
Figure 4. Mean summer season vector winds in the Snake River Plain. Full and half barb denote
1 and 0.5 m s-1, respectively. Terrain shading as in Fig. 1. (a) 0300 LST. (b) 0900 LST. (c) 1500
LST. (d) 2100 LST (e) IDF time series. (f) HOW time series. (g) RHF time series.
Figure 5. Mean summer season vector winds in the Southern Nevada basin and Range Province.
Full and half barb denote 1 and 0.5 m s-1, respectively. Terrain shading as in Fig. 1. (a) 0300
LST. (b) 0900 LST. (c) 1500 LST. (d) 2100 LST (e) DRA time series. (f) A36 time series. (g)
A02 time series.
Figure 6. Mean summer season vector winds in Central Arizona. Full and half barb denote 1
and 0.5 m s-1, respectively. Terrain shading as in Fig. 1. (a) 0300 LST. (b) 0900 LST. (c) 1500
LST. (d) 2100 LST (e) LUF time series. (f) EEK time series. (g) STT time series.
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TABLES
1. Solar radiation and 700 hPa wind observation sites.
Region
Wasatch Front Valleys
Snake River Plain
Southern Nevada
Central Arizona
Solar Observation Site(lon/lat)
WBB (-111.85, 40.77)
RID (-112.94, 43.59)
700 hPa Wind Observation(lon/lat)
SLC ( -111.97, 40.78)
BOI ( -116.22, 43.57)
DRA (-116.02, 36.62)
TUS (-110.93, 32.12)