Abstract
Northwestern South America (NWSA) is a mountainous tropical region bordered by the Caribbean Sea and the Andes, with high vulnerability to extreme hydrometeorological events. Between June and August, mesoscale convective systems (MCSs) frequently occur during nighttime, producing significant impacts across the region. Here, we characterized four MCS events over the NWSA region using a combination of hydrometeorological station data, satellite-based precipitation estimates, climate reanalysis, and convection-permitting (CP) simulations with the Weather Research and Forecasting (WRF) model. These events exhibited deep convective cores (>11 km) that initiated over the Andean foothills and reached maturity over the Colombian Caribbean lowlands. At a synoptic scale, the main features identified included the passage of easterly waves, the presence of lowpressure systems in the lower troposphere, and Amazonian winds channeled from southern Colombia. At mesoscale, common patterns included low-level flow channeled through the Magdalena–Cauca valleys (possibly linked to Amazonian inflows), extended nocturnal sea–land breezes with lowlevel jet characteristics, and northwesterly gap winds between the Sierra Nevada de Santa Marta and the Central Andes. In all four cases, a mean increase of up to 12.6% in precipitable water and intensification of low-level wind convergence were observed 6–8 hours before MCS development, suggesting that this time-scale might be relevant to risk management. These results underscore the value of the WRF model in CP configuration for simulating the morphology and dynamics of convective systems in tropical regions with complex terrain.
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