Graphical Abstract

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Ohigashi, T., K. Tsuboki, Y. Shusse, and H. Uyeda, 2014: An intensification process of a winter broad cloud band on a flank of the mountain region along the Japan-Sea coast. J. Meteor. Soc. Japan, 92, 71–93.
https://doi.org/10.2151/jmsj.2014-105
Graphical Abstract

Highlights:

• A broad cloud band formed along the northern coastal region of western Japan and persisted for about 2 days from 25 to 27 January 2009, during a cold-air outbreak. In the band, snowfall was remarkably intensified along a flank of a high mountain region in central Japan. The intensification caused local concentration of substantial precipitation (Figure 1).
• It can be theoretically explained that the winds are blocked at least below a height of 900 m by a high mountain region in Hokuriku. The southwesterlies caused by the blocking made a convergence with the predominant westerlies, the area of which corresponded to the intensified precipitation region.
• For the intensified precipitation region, time-averaged specific differential phase (K_DP) had negative values (Figure 2), which indicates the predominance of prolate graupel in the intensified precipitation region.