Orographic Precipitation in Coastal Southern Chile: Mean Distribution, Temporal Variability, and Linear Contribution

Abstract

The Nahuelbuta Mountains (NM) are a semielliptical massif 1300 m high in coastal southern Chile (37 degrees-38 degrees S) facing frontal storms that move from the Pacific. Mean precipitation between 900 and 1200 mm yr(-1) is observed in the surrounding lowland, but river flow measurements suggest values >= 3000 mm yr(-1) atop the mountains. To verify and characterize such marked orographic enhancement, 15 rain gauges were deployed around and over the NM. The observations were supplemented by a high-resolution WRF simulation and linear theory (LT) modeling during the winter of 2011. The estimated mean precipitation increases gradually from offshore (~1000 mm yr(-1)) to the north-facing foothills (2000 mm yr(-1)). The precipitation rapidly increases in the upslope sector to reach ~4000 mm yr(-1) over the northern half of the NM elevated plateau, and decreases farther south to reach background values 20-30 km downstream of the mountains. The upstream (downstream) orographic enhancement (suppression) was relatively uniform among storms when considering event accumulations but varied substantially within each storm, with larger modifications during pre- and postfrontal stages and minor modifications during the brief but intense frontal passage. WRF results are in good agreement with observations in terms of seasonal and daily mean rainfall distributions, as well as temporal variability. Given its linear, steady-state formulation, the LT model cannot resolve rainfall variability at short (hourly) time scales, which in WRF is at least characterized by transient, mesoscale rainbands. Nonetheless, the rainbands are mobile so the accumulation field at monthly or longer time scales produced by the linear model is remarkably similar to its WRF counterpart.