Articles | Volume 24, issue 1
https://doi.org/10.5194/nhess-24-133-2024
© Author(s) 2024. This work is distributed under
the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 License.
the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 License.
https://doi.org/10.5194/nhess-24-133-2024
© Author(s) 2024. This work is distributed under
the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 License.
the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 License.
Exploiting radar polarimetry for nowcasting thunderstorm hazards using deep learning
Nathalie Rombeek
Federal Office of Meteorology and Climatology MeteoSwiss, Locarno-Monti, Switzerland
Jussi Leinonen
Federal Office of Meteorology and Climatology MeteoSwiss, Locarno-Monti, Switzerland
Ulrich Hamann
CORRESPONDING AUTHOR
Federal Office of Meteorology and Climatology MeteoSwiss, Locarno-Monti, Switzerland
Related authors
Nathalie Rombeek, Markus Hrachowitz, Arjan Droste, and Remko Uijlenhoet
Hydrol. Earth Syst. Sci., 29, 4585–4606, https://doi.org/10.5194/hess-29-4585-2025, https://doi.org/10.5194/hess-29-4585-2025, 2025
Short summary
Short summary
Rain gauge networks from personal weather stations (PWSs) have a network density 100 times higher than dedicated rain gauge networks in the Netherlands. However, PWSs are prone to several sources of error, as they are generally not installed and maintained according to international guidelines. This study systematically quantifies and describes the uncertainties arising from PWS rainfall estimates. In particular, the focus is on the highest rainfall accumulations.
Nathalie Rombeek, Markus Hrachowitz, and Remko Uijlenhoet
EGUsphere, https://doi.org/10.5194/egusphere-2025-1502, https://doi.org/10.5194/egusphere-2025-1502, 2025
Short summary
Short summary
On 29 October 2024 Valencia (Spain) was struck by torrential rainfall, triggering devastating floods in this area. In this study, we quantify and describe the spatial and temporal structure of this rainfall event using personal weather stations (PWSs). These PWSs provide near real-time observations at a temporal resolution of ~5 min. This study shows the potential of PWSs for real-time rainfall monitoring and potentially flood early warning systems by complementing dedicated rain gauge networks.
Nathalie Rombeek, Markus Hrachowitz, Arjan Droste, and Remko Uijlenhoet
Hydrol. Earth Syst. Sci., 29, 4585–4606, https://doi.org/10.5194/hess-29-4585-2025, https://doi.org/10.5194/hess-29-4585-2025, 2025
Short summary
Short summary
Rain gauge networks from personal weather stations (PWSs) have a network density 100 times higher than dedicated rain gauge networks in the Netherlands. However, PWSs are prone to several sources of error, as they are generally not installed and maintained according to international guidelines. This study systematically quantifies and describes the uncertainties arising from PWS rainfall estimates. In particular, the focus is on the highest rainfall accumulations.
Nathalie Rombeek, Markus Hrachowitz, and Remko Uijlenhoet
EGUsphere, https://doi.org/10.5194/egusphere-2025-1502, https://doi.org/10.5194/egusphere-2025-1502, 2025
Short summary
Short summary
On 29 October 2024 Valencia (Spain) was struck by torrential rainfall, triggering devastating floods in this area. In this study, we quantify and describe the spatial and temporal structure of this rainfall event using personal weather stations (PWSs). These PWSs provide near real-time observations at a temporal resolution of ~5 min. This study shows the potential of PWSs for real-time rainfall monitoring and potentially flood early warning systems by complementing dedicated rain gauge networks.
Jussi Leinonen, Ulrich Hamann, Urs Germann, and John R. Mecikalski
Nat. Hazards Earth Syst. Sci., 22, 577–597, https://doi.org/10.5194/nhess-22-577-2022, https://doi.org/10.5194/nhess-22-577-2022, 2022
Short summary
Short summary
We evaluate the usefulness of different data sources and variables to the short-term prediction (
nowcasting) of severe thunderstorms using machine learning. Machine-learning models are trained with data from weather radars, satellite images, lightning detection and weather forecasts and with terrain elevation data. We analyze the benefits provided by each of the data sources to predicting hazards (heavy precipitation, lightning and hail) caused by the thunderstorms.
Jussi Leinonen, Jacopo Grazioli, and Alexis Berne
Atmos. Meas. Tech., 14, 6851–6866, https://doi.org/10.5194/amt-14-6851-2021, https://doi.org/10.5194/amt-14-6851-2021, 2021
Short summary
Short summary
Measuring the shape, size and mass of a large number of snowflakes is a challenging task; it is hard to achieve in an automatic and instrumented manner. We present a method to retrieve these properties of individual snowflakes using as input a triplet of images/pictures automatically collected by a multi-angle snowflake camera (MASC) instrument. Our method, based on machine learning, is trained on artificially generated snowflakes and evaluated on 3D-printed snowflake replicas.
Cited articles
Ayzel, G., Heistermann, M., and Winterrath, T.: Optical flow models as an open benchmark for radar-based precipitation nowcasting (rainymotion v0.1), Geosci. Model Dev., 12, 1387–1402, https://doi.org/10.5194/gmd-12-1387-2019, 2019. a
Besic, N., Figueras i Ventura, J., Grazioli, J., Gabella, M., Germann, U., and Berne, A.: Hydrometeor classification through statistical clustering of polarimetric radar measurements: a semi-supervised approach, Atmos. Meas. Tech., 9, 4425–4445, https://doi.org/10.5194/amt-9-4425-2016, 2016. a
Ciach, G. J. and Krajewski, W. F.: On the estimation of radar rainfall error variance, Adv. Water Resour., 22, 585–595, 1999. a
Dixon, M. and Wiener, G.: TITAN: Thunderstorm identification, tracking, analysis, and nowcasting – A radar-based methodology, J. Atmos. Ocean. Tech., 10, 785–797, 1993. a
Ebert, E. E.: Fuzzy verification of high-resolution gridded forecasts: a review and proposed framework, Meteorological Applications: A journal of forecasting, practical applications, Training Techniques and Modelling, 15, 51–64, 2008. a
European Union: Commission Implementing Regulation (EU) 2017/373 of 1 March 2017 laying down common requirements for providers of air traffic management/air navigation services and other air traffic management network functions and their oversight, Off. J. European Union, 60, L 62, https://eur-lex.europa.eu/legal-content/EN/TXT/PDF/?uri=CELEX:32017R0373&from=EN (last access: 3 January 2024), 2017. a
Feldmann, M., Germann, U., Gabella, M., and Berne, A.: A characterisation of Alpine mesocyclone occurrence, Weather Clim. Dynam., 2, 1225–1244, https://doi.org/10.5194/wcd-2-1225-2021, 2021. a, b
Figueras i Ventura, J., Pineda, N., Besic, N., Grazioli, J., Hering, A., van der Velde, O. A., Romero, D., Sunjerga, A., Mostajabi, A., Azadifar, M., Rubinstein, M., Montanyà, J., Germann, U., and Rachidi, F.: Polarimetric radar characteristics of lightning initiation and propagating channels, Atmos. Meas. Tech., 12, 2881–2911, https://doi.org/10.5194/amt-12-2881-2019, 2019. a
Foote, G. B., Krauss, T. W., and Makitov, V.: Hail Metrics Using Conventional Radar, in: 85th AMS Annual Meeting, American Meteorological Society, San Diego, CA, USA, 2005, https://ams.confex.com/ams/Annual2005/webprogram/Paper86773.html (last access: 3 January 2024), 2005. a
Foresti, L., Reyniers, M., Seed, A., and Delobbe, L.: Development and verification of a real-time stochastic precipitation nowcasting system for urban hydrology in Belgium, Hydrol. Earth Syst. Sci., 20, 505–527, https://doi.org/10.5194/hess-20-505-2016, 2016. a
Germann, U., Galli, G., Boscacci, M., and Bolliger, M.: Radar precipitation measurement in a mountainous region, Q. J. Roy. Meteor. Soc., 132, 1669–1692, 2006. a
Germann, U., Boscacci, M., Clementi, L., Gabella, M., Hering, A., Sartori, M., Sideris, I. V., and Calpini, B.: Weather radar in complex orography, Remote Sensing, 14, 503, https://doi.org/10.3390/rs14030503, 2022. a, b
Goodfellow, I., Bengio, Y., and Courville, A.: Deep Learning, MIT Press, Cambridge, Massachusetts, USA, http://www.deeplearningbook.org (last access: 3 January 2024), 2016. a
Guastavino, S., Piana, M., Tizzi, M., Cassola, F., Iengo, A., Sacchetti, D., Solazzo, E., and Benvenuto, F.: Prediction of severe thunderstorm events with ensemble deep learning and radar data, Sci. Rep., 12, 1–14, 2022. a
Han, L., Zhao, Y., Chen, H., and Chandrasekar, V.: Advancing radar nowcasting through deep transfer learning, IEEE T. Geosci. Remote, 60, 1–9, 2021. a
Hering, A., Morel, C., Galli, G., Sénési, S., Ambrosetti, P., and Boscacci, M.: Nowcasting thunderstorms in the Alpine region using a radar based adaptive thresholding scheme, in: Proceedings of ERAD, vol. 1, https://www.copernicus.org/erad/2004/online/ERAD04_P_206.pdf (last access: 3 January 2024), 2004. a
Hoeppe, P.: Trends in weather related disasters – Consequences for insurers and society, Weather and climate extremes, 11, 70–79, 2016. a
Holle, R. L.: Annual Rates of Lightning Fatalities by Country. In Proceedings of the 20th International Lightning Detection Conference, Tucson, AZ, USA, 21–23 April 2008; Volume 2425, https://www.researchgate.net/profile/Ronald-Holle/publication/267855823_Annual_rates_of_lightning_fatalities_by_country/links/54af154a0cf29661a3d49861/Annual-rates-of-lightning-fatalities-by-country.pdf (last access: 3 January 2024), 2008. a
Imhoff, R., Brauer, C., Overeem, A., Weerts, A., and Uijlenhoet, R.: Spatial and temporal evaluation of radar rainfall nowcasting techniques on 1,533 events, Water Resour. Res., 56, e2019WR026723, https://doi.org/10.1029/2019WR026723, 2020. a
International Civil Aviation Organization: Annex 3 to the Convention on International Civil Aviation: Meteorological Service for International Air Navigation, International Civil Aviation Organization, Montreal, Canada, 20 edn., ISBN 978-92-9258-482-5, 2018. a
Kumjian, M. R.: Principles and Applications of Dual-Polarization Weather Radar. Part III: Artifacts, Journal of Operational Meteorology, 1, 265–274, https://doi.org/10.15191/nwajom.2013.0121, 2013a. a
Kumjian, M. R.: Principles and Applications of Dual-Polarization Weather Radar. Part I: Description of the Polarimetric Radar Variables, Journal of Operational Meteorology, 1, 226–242, https://doi.org/10.15191/nwajom.2013.0119, 2013b. a, b
Leinonen, J., Hamann, U., and Germann, U.: Data archive for “Seamless lightning nowcasting with recurrent-convolutional deep learning”, Zenodo [data set], https://doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.6802292, 2022a. a
Lin, T.-Y., Goyal, P., Girshick, R., He, K., and Dollár, P.: Focal Loss for Dense Object Detection, in: 2017 IEEE International Conference on Computer Vision (ICCV), Venice, Italy, 22 to 29 October 2017, 2999–3007, https://doi.org/10.1109/ICCV.2017.324, 2017. a
Löffler-Mang, M., Schön, D., and Landry, M.: Characteristics of a new automatic hail recorder, Atmos. Res., 100, 439–446, 2011. a
Lund, N. R., MacGorman, D. R., Schuur, T. J., Biggerstaff, M. I., and Rust, W. D.: Relationships between lightning location and polarimetric radar signatures in a small mesoscale convective system, Mon. Weather Rev., 137, 4151–4170, 2009. a
Lynn, B. and Yair, Y.: Prediction of lightning flash density with the WRF model, Adv. Geosci., 23, 11–16, https://doi.org/10.5194/adgeo-23-11-2010, 2010. a
Molnar, C.: Interpretable Machine Learning: A Guide For Making Black Box Models Explainable, Independently published, 2 edn., https://christophm.github.io/interpretable-ml-book/ (last access: 3 January 2024), 2022. a
Nisi, L., Martius, O., Hering, A., Kunz, M., and Germann, U.: Spatial and temporal distribution of hailstorms in the Alpine region: a long-term, high resolution, radar-based analysis, Q. J. Roy. Meteor. Soc., 142, 1590–1604, 2016. a
Pan, X., Lu, Y., Zhao, K., Huang, H., Wang, M., and Chen, H.: Improving Nowcasting of Convective Development by Incorporating Polarimetric Radar Variables Into a Deep-Learning Model, Geophys. Res. Lett., 48, e2021GL095302, https://doi.org/10.1029/2021GL095302, 2021. a
Pierce, C., Seed, A., Ballard, S., Simonin, D., and Li, Z.: Nowcasting, in: Doppler Radar Observations, edited by: Bech, J. and Chau, J. L., chap. 4, IntechOpen, Rijeka, https://doi.org/10.5772/39054, 2012. a
Poelman, D. R., Schulz, W., Diendorfer, G., and Bernardi, M.: The European lightning location system EUCLID – Part 2: Observations, Nat. Hazards Earth Syst. Sci., 16, 607–616, https://doi.org/10.5194/nhess-16-607-2016, 2016. a
Pulkkinen, S., Nerini, D., Pérez Hortal, A. A., Velasco-Forero, C., Seed, A., Germann, U., and Foresti, L.: Pysteps: an open-source Python library for probabilistic precipitation nowcasting (v1.0), Geosci. Model Dev., 12, 4185–4219, https://doi.org/10.5194/gmd-12-4185-2019, 2019. a
Rädler, A. T., Groenemeijer, P. H., Faust, E., Sausen, R., and Púčik, T.: Frequency of severe thunderstorms across Europe expected to increase in the 21st century due to rising instability, npj Climate and Atmospheric Science, 2, 1–5, 2019. a
Raupach, T. H., Martius, O., Allen, J. T., Kunz, M., Lasher-Trapp, S., Mohr, S., Rasmussen, K. L., Trapp, R. J., and Zhang, Q.: The effects of climate change on hailstorms, Nat. Rev. Earth Environ., 2, 213–226, 2021. a
Rinehart, R. E.: Radar for Meteorologists, Or, You Too Can be a Radar Meteorologist, Part III, Rinehart Publications Nevada, MO, USA, ISBN 0965800237, 2010. a
Ritvanen, J., Harnist, B., Aldana, M., Mäkinen, T., and Pulkkinen, S.: Advection-Free Convolutional Neural Network for Convective Rainfall Nowcasting, IEEE J. Sel. Top. Appl., 16, 1654–1667, https://doi.org/10.1109/JSTARS.2023.3238016, 2023. a
Roberts, N. M. and Lean, H. W.: Scale-selective verification of rainfall accumulations from high-resolution forecasts of convective events, Mon. Weather Rev., 136, 78–97, 2008. a
Rombeek, N., Leinonen, J., and Hamann, U.: Data archive for “Exploiting radar polarimetry for nowcasting thunderstorm hazards using deep learning”, Zenodo [data set], https://doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.7760740, 2023. a
Sachidananda, M. and Zrnic, D.: Differential propagation phase shift and rainfall rate estimation, Radio Sci., 21, 235–247, 1986. a
Schulz, W., Diendorfer, G., Pedeboy, S., and Poelman, D. R.: The European lightning location system EUCLID – Part 1: Performance analysis and validation, Nat. Hazards Earth Syst. Sci., 16, 595–605, https://doi.org/10.5194/nhess-16-595-2016, 2016. a
Seliga, T. A. and Bringi, V.: Potential use of radar differential reflectivity measurements at orthogonal polarizations for measuring precipitation, J. Appl. Meteorol. Clim., 15, 69–76, 1976. a
Shapley, L. S.: Notes on the n-Person Game – II: The Value of an n-Person Game, Tech. Rep. RM-670, The RAND Corporation, https://www.rand.org/content/dam/rand/pubs/research_memoranda/2008/RM670.pdf (last access: 3 January 2024), 1951. a
Sideris, I., Gabella, M., Erdin, R., and Germann, U.: Real-time radar–rain-gauge merging using spatio-temporal co-kriging with external drift in the alpine terrain of Switzerland, Q. J. Roy. Meteorol. Soc., 140, 1097–1111, 2014a. a
Sideris, I., Gabella, M., Sassi, M., and Germann, U.: The CombiPrecip experience: development and operation of a real-time radar-raingauge combination scheme in Switzerland, in: 2014 International Weather Radar and Hydrology Symposium, Washington DC, USA, 2014, 1–10, https://www.researchgate.net/profile/Ioannis-Sideris (last access: 3 January 2024), 2014b. a
Sideris, I. V., Foresti, L., Nerini, D., and Germann, U.: NowPrecip: Localized precipitation nowcasting in the complex terrain of Switzerland, Q. J. Roy. Meteorol. Soc., 146, 1768–1800, 2020. a
Simonin, D., Pierce, C., Roberts, N., Ballard, S. P., and Li, Z.: Performance of Met Office hourly cycling NWP-based nowcasting for precipitation forecasts, Q. J. Roy. Meteorol. Soc., 143, 2862–2873, 2017. a
Snyder, J. C., Ryzhkov, A. V., Kumjian, M. R., Khain, A. P., and Picca, J.: A Z DR column detection algorithm to examine convective storm updrafts, Weather Forecast., 30, 1819–1844, 2015. a
Taszarek, M., Allen, J. T., Brooks, H. E., Pilguj, N., and Czernecki, B.: Differing trends in United States and European severe thunderstorm environments in a warming climate, B. Am. Meteorol. Soc., 102, E296–E322, 2021. a
Vivekanandan, J., Zrnic, D., Ellis, S., Oye, R., Ryzhkov, A., and Straka, J.: Cloud microphysics retrieval using S-band dual-polarization radar measurements, B. Am. Meteorol. Soc., 80, 381–388, 1999. a
Waldvogel, A., Federer, B., and Grimm, P.: Criteria for the detection of hail cells, J. Appl. Meteorol. Clim., 18, 1521–1525, 1979. a
Wilson, J. W., Crook, N. A., Mueller, C. K., Sun, J., and Dixon, M.: Nowcasting thunderstorms: A status report, B. Am. Meteorol. Soc., 79, 2079–2100, 1998. a
Wolfensberger, D., Gabella, M., Boscacci, M., Germann, U., and Berne, A.: RainForest: a random forest algorithm for quantitative precipitation estimation over Switzerland, Atmos. Meas. Tech., 14, 3169–3193, https://doi.org/10.5194/amt-14-3169-2021, 2021. a, b
Yin, J., Gao, Z., and Han, W.: Application of a Radar Echo Extrapolation-Based Deep Learning Method in Strong Convection Nowcasting, Earth Space Sci., 8, e2020EA001621, https://doi.org/10.1029/2020EA001621, 2021. a
Zhou, K., Zheng, Y., Dong, W., and Wang, T.: A deep learning network for cloud-to-ground lightning nowcasting with multisource data, J. Atmos. Ocean. Tech., 37, 927–942, 2020. a
Short summary
Severe weather such as hail, lightning, and heavy rainfall can be hazardous to humans and property. Dual-polarization weather radars provide crucial information to forecast these events by detecting precipitation types. This study analyses the importance of dual-polarization data for predicting severe weather for 60 min using an existing deep learning model. The results indicate that including these variables improves the accuracy of predicting heavy rainfall and lightning.
Severe weather such as hail, lightning, and heavy rainfall can be hazardous to humans and...
Altmetrics
Final-revised paper
Preprint