Nocturnal rainfall East of the Antilles Islands

Jury, Mark; Bernard, Didier

Nocturnal rainfall East of the Antilles Islands

dc.contributor.author	Jury, Mark
dc.contributor.author	Bernard, Didier
dc.coverage.conference	issn
dc.date.accessioned	2025-12-05T06:20:02Z
dc.date.available	2025-12-05T06:20:02Z
dc.date.issued	2022
dc.departmentName	Geography and Environmental Studies
dc.description.abstract	We analyze nocturnal rainfall caused by the interaction of trade winds and land breezes on the windward flank of the islands of Guadeloupe, Dominica, and Martinique of the eastern Caribbean Antilles. Climatology for the 2000–2019 period and a nocturnal rainfall case study 8–9 February 2018 are supplemented by modern 5–25 km hourly resolution satellite and reanalysis products and station measurements that describe the diurnal cycle around the islands. Mean trade winds of 7 m s−1 decelerate upstream, ∂U/∂x less than −10−5 s−1, causing an increase in warm-cloud rainfall from 2 to 4 mm d−1 between 03:30 and 06:30 local time (local time is UTC-4). The incoming airflow has a characteristic Froude number less than 1 and stagnates on the windward slopes of these volcanic islands. Nocturnal land breezes spread toward the east coast about one-third of the time. Additional work considers whether air–sea interactions play a role. Low salinity and wave-induced turbulence to the east of the Antilles add buoyancy and moisture to the atmospheric boundary layer. Yet areas of low turbidity encircling the east Antilles suggest that nocturnal airflow creates a divergent “cushion” around Guadeloupe, Dominica, and Martinique. Thermal and orographic influences merge and rain falls over the eastern flank of the islands, contributing to the water resources.
dc.faculty	Faculty of Science, Agriculture and Engineering
dc.format.preprint	No
dc.identifier.citation	Jury, M.R. and Bernard, D., 2021. Nocturnal rainfall East of the Antilles Islands. Atmosphere-Ocean, 59(4-5), pp.201-213.
dc.identifier.issn	1480-9214 (online)
dc.identifier.issn	0705-5900 (print)
dc.identifier.other	https://doi.org/10.1080/07055900.2021.1995317
dc.identifier.uri	http://hdl.handle.net/10530/58501
dc.inproceedings	issn
dc.issuenumber	59 / 4-5
dc.keynote	issn
dc.language.iso	en
dc.pages	201 - 213
dc.peerreviewed	Yes
dc.publisher	Taylor & Francis
dc.subject	Nocturnal rainfall
dc.subject	East Antilles Islands
dc.subject	Trade winds
dc.subject	Land breeze
dc.subject	Air–sea interaction
dc.title	Nocturnal rainfall East of the Antilles Islands
dc.title.journal	Atmosphere-Ocean
dc.type	Journal Article
dspace.entity.type	Publication
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