Influence of the Urban Heat Island parameterization on precipitation forecasting in limited area model

The goal of this study is to evaluate the influence of an explicit Urban Heat Island (UHI) parameterization on the rainfall estimation within a meteorological model. To investigate the role of the urban landscape over the quantitative rainfall estimation the Regional Atmospheric Modelling System (RAMS) was employed. In order to accurately describe the presence of urban landscape the Town Energy Budget scheme (TEB) was coupled with RAMS. The coupled system RAMS-TEB was used to reproduce the three-day heavy rain event that occurred over Rome (Italy) in December 2008. To assess the role of TEB scheme in the rainfall modellization, a comparative analysis procedure was utilized. The results indicate that both wind and precipitation are significantly influenced by the presence of the city. As expected, the accurate representation of urban surfaces contributes to local heavy precipitation distribution over the Rome area. © 2010 Taylor & Francis Group, London.