MESOSCALE METEOROLOGY

The study of weather features possessing the horizontal dimensions from 2 to 2,000 kilometers (1.2 to 1,250 miles) and the time scale from 1 hour to several days. A dense array of weather stations, such as the Oklahoma Mesonet, can resolve the larger weather features of this scale whereas the conventional National Weather Service stations are meant to resolve synoptic-scale features. Examples of mesonet-observable features (20 to 2,000 kilometers) within the mesoscale range are secondary frontal circulations, meso- lows, hurricane rain bands, lee waves, squall lines, low level jet, and inertial waves. Examples of smaller mesoscale features (2 to 20 kilometers), requiring a mobile mesonet or radar observation, are urban heat islands, supercell mesocyclones, mesoscale convective vortices, and orographic disturmances.