A RELATIONSHIP OF ATMOSPHERIC FRONTS AND RAINFALL IN WESTERN JAPAN IN THE RAINY SEASON

Abstract

 In this study, a method for extracting fronts from weather maps treated as weather information was developed and applied to 34 years of weather maps. The front can now be treated as grid data, and it is shown that rainfall within 100 km around the front accounts for more than 30% of the rainfall in the Kyushu region in June and July. Furthermore, it was found that the spatial mean rainfall over the area passed by the front as it moved meridionally over the Kyushu region reached a maximum when the front moved about 300 kilometers. The weather patterns suggest that the north-south movement of the front is affected by moving depression with fronts, the approach of a typhoon or tropical cyclone, and an enhancement of an anticyclone.