A rainband is a cloud and

precipitation In meteorology, precipitation is any product of the condensation of atmospheric water vapor that falls under gravitational pull from clouds. The main forms of precipitation include drizzle, rain, Rain and snow mixed, sleet, snow, ice pellets, ...

structure associated with an area of rainfall which is significantly elongated. Rainbands can be stratiform or

convective Convection is single or multiphase fluid flow that occurs spontaneously due to the combined effects of material property heterogeneity and body forces on a fluid, most commonly density and gravity (see buoyancy). When the cause of the convect ...

, and are generated by differences in temperature. When noted on

weather radar Weather radar, also called weather surveillance radar (WSR) and Doppler weather radar, is a type of radar used to locate precipitation, calculate its motion, and estimate its type (rain, snow, hail etc.). Modern weather radars are mostly pulse- ...

imagery, this precipitation elongation is referred to as banded structure. Rainbands within tropical cyclones are curved in orientation. Rainbands of

tropical cyclones A tropical cyclone is a rapidly rotating storm system characterized by a low-pressure center, a closed low-level atmospheric circulation, strong winds, and a spiral arrangement of thunderstorms that produce heavy rain and squalls. Depend ...

contain showers and thunderstorms that, together with the eyewall and the

eye Eyes are organs of the visual system. They provide living organisms with vision, the ability to receive and process visual detail, as well as enabling several photo response functions that are independent of vision. Eyes detect light and con ...

, constitute a hurricane or tropical storm. The extent of rainbands around a tropical cyclone can help determine the cyclone's intensity. Rainbands spawned near and ahead of

cold front A cold front is the leading edge of a cooler mass of air at ground level that replaces a warmer mass of air and lies within a pronounced surface trough of low pressure. It often forms behind an extratropical cyclone (to the west in the Northern H ...

s can be

squall line A squall line, or more accurately a quasi-linear convective system (QLCS), is a line of thunderstorms, often forming along or ahead of a cold front. In the early 20th century, the term was used as a synonym for cold front (which often are accompa ...

s which are able to produce

tornado A tornado is a violently rotating column of air that is in contact with both the surface of the Earth and a cumulonimbus cloud or, in rare cases, the base of a cumulus cloud. It is often referred to as a twister, whirlwind or cyclone, althou ...

es. Rainbands associated with cold fronts can be warped by mountain barriers perpendicular to the front's orientation due to the formation of a low-level barrier jet. Bands of thunderstorms can form with

sea breeze A sea breeze or onshore breeze is any wind that blows from a large body of water toward or onto a landmass; it develops due to differences in air pressure created by the differing heat capacities of water and dry land. As such, sea breezes ar ...

and

land breeze A sea breeze or onshore breeze is any wind that blows from a large body of water toward or onto a landmass; it develops due to differences in air pressure created by the differing heat capacities of water and dry land. As such, sea breezes ar ...

boundaries, if enough moisture is present. If sea breeze rainbands become active enough just ahead of a cold front, they can mask the location of the cold front itself. Banding within the comma head precipitation pattern of an

extratropical cyclone Extratropical cyclones, sometimes called mid-latitude cyclones or wave cyclones, are low-pressure areas which, along with the anticyclones of high-pressure areas, drive the weather over much of the Earth. Extratropical cyclones are capable of ...

can yield significant amounts of

rain Rain is water droplets that have condensed from atmospheric water vapor and then fall under gravity. Rain is a major component of the water cycle and is responsible for depositing most of the fresh water on the Earth. It provides water fo ...

snow Snow comprises individual ice crystals that grow while suspended in the atmosphere—usually within clouds—and then fall, accumulating on the ground where they undergo further changes. It consists of frozen crystalline water throughout ...

. Behind extratropical cyclones, rainbands can form downwind of relative warm bodies of water such as the

Great Lakes The Great Lakes, also called the Great Lakes of North America, are a series of large interconnected freshwater lakes in the mid-east region of North America that connect to the Atlantic Ocean via the Saint Lawrence River. There are five lakes ...

. If the atmosphere is cold enough, these rainbands can yield heavy

Extratropical cyclones

Rainbands in advance of warm

occluded front In meteorology, an occluded front is a type of weather front formed during cyclogenesis. The classical and usual view of an occluded front is that it initiates when a cold front overtakes a warm front near a cyclone, such that the warm air is separ ...

s and

warm front A warm front is a density discontinuity located at the leading edge of a homogeneous warm air mass, and is typically located on the equator-facing edge of an isotherm gradient. Warm fronts lie within broader troughs of low pressure than cold fro ...

s are associated with weak upward motion, and tend to be wide and stratiform in nature. In an atmosphere with rich low level moisture and vertical wind shear, narrow, convective rainbands known as

s form generally in the

cyclone In meteorology, a cyclone () is a large air mass that rotates around a strong center of low atmospheric pressure, counterclockwise in the Northern Hemisphere and clockwise in the Southern Hemisphere as viewed from above (opposite to an ant ...

's warm sector, ahead of strong cold fronts associated with extratropical cyclones. Wider rain bands can occur behind cold fronts, which tend to have more stratiform, and less convective, precipitation. Within the cold sector north to northwest of a cyclone center, in colder cyclones, small scale, or mesoscale, bands of heavy snow can occur within a cyclone's comma head precipitation pattern with a width of to . These bands in the comma head are associated with areas of frontogensis, or zones of strengthening temperature contrast. Southwest of

extratropical cyclones Extratropical cyclones, sometimes called mid-latitude cyclones or wave cyclones, are low-pressure areas which, along with the anticyclones of high-pressure areas, drive the weather over much of the Earth. Extratropical cyclones are capable of p ...

, curved flow bringing cold air across the relatively warm

can lead to narrow

lake-effect snow Lake-effect snow is produced during cooler atmospheric conditions when a cold air mass moves across long expanses of warmer lake water. The lower layer of air, heated up by the lake water, picks up water vapor from the lake and rises up through ...

bands which bring significant localized snowfall.

Narrow Cold Frontal Rainband

A narrow cold frontal rainband (NCFR) is a characteristic of particularly sharp cold frontal boundaries. These can usually be seen very easily on satellite photos. NCFRs are typically accompanied by strong gusty winds and brief but intense rainfall. Convection may or may not occur depending on the stability of the air mass being lifted by the front. Such fronts usually are also marked by a sharp wind shift and temperature drop.

Tropical cyclones

Rainbands exist in the periphery of tropical cyclones, which point towards the cyclone's center of

low pressure In meteorology, a low-pressure area, low area or low is a region where the atmospheric pressure is lower than that of surrounding locations. Low-pressure areas are commonly associated with inclement weather (such as cloudy, windy, with possible ...

. Rainbands within tropical cyclones require ample moisture and a low level pool of cooler air. Bands located to from a cyclone's center migrate outward. They are capable of producing heavy

rains Rains may refer to: Surname * Rains (surname) Places * Rains, South Carolina, an unincorporated community in Marion County, South Carolina * Rains County, Texas Rains County is a county located in the U.S. state of Texas. As of the 2020 cens ...

and

squall A squall is a sudden, sharp increase in wind speed lasting minutes, as opposed to a wind gust, which lasts for only seconds. They are usually associated with active weather, such as rain showers, thunderstorms, or heavy snow. Squalls refer to the ...

s of wind, as well as

tornadoes A tornado is a violently rotating column of air that is in contact with both the surface of the Earth and a cumulonimbus cloud or, in rare cases, the base of a cumulus cloud. It is often referred to as a twister, whirlwind or cyclone, althou ...

, particularly in the storm's right-front quadrant. Some rainbands move closer to the center, forming a secondary, or outer,

eyewall The eye is a region of mostly calm weather at the center of tropical cyclones. The eye of a storm is a roughly circular area, typically in diameter. It is surrounded by the ''eyewall'', a ring of towering thunderstorms where the most severe weat ...

within intense hurricanes. Spiral rainbands are such a basic structure to a tropical cyclone that in most

tropical cyclone basins Traditionally, areas of tropical cyclone formation are divided into seven basins. These include the north Atlantic Ocean, the eastern and western parts of the northern Pacific Ocean, the southwestern Pacific, the southwestern and southeastern Ind ...

, use of the satellite-based

Dvorak technique The Dvorak technique (developed between 1969 and 1984 by Vernon Dvorak) is a widely used system to estimate tropical cyclone intensity (which includes tropical depression, tropical storm, and hurricane/typhoon/intense tropical cyclone intensitie ...

is the primary method used to determine a tropical cyclone's

maximum sustained wind The maximum sustained wind associated with a tropical cyclone is a common indicator of the intensity of the storm. Within a mature tropical cyclone, it is found within the eyewall at a distance defined as the radius of maximum wind, or RMW. Unl ...

University of Wisconsin–Madison A university () is an institution of higher (or tertiary) education and research which awards academic degrees in several academic disciplines. Universities typically offer both undergraduate and postgraduate programs. In the United States, the ...

(1998
Objective Dvorak Technique.
Retrieved on 2006-05-29. Within this method, the extent of spiral banding and difference in temperature between the

and eyewall is used to assign a maximum sustained wind and a central pressure. Central pressure values for their centers of

derived from this technique are approximate. Different programs have been studying these rainbands, including the Hurricane Rainband and Intensity Change Experiment.

Forced by geography

Convective rainbands can form parallel to terrain on its windward side, due to

lee wave In meteorology, lee waves are atmospheric stationary waves. The most common form is mountain waves, which are atmospheric internal gravity waves. These were discovered in 1933 by two German glider pilots, Hans Deutschmann and Wolf Hirth, above ...

s triggered by hills just upstream of the cloud's formation. Their spacing is normally to apart. When bands of precipitation near frontal zones approach steep topography, a low-level barrier

jet stream Jet streams are fast flowing, narrow, meandering air currents in the atmospheres of some planets, including Earth. On Earth, the main jet streams are located near the altitude of the tropopause and are westerly winds (flowing west to east). ...

forms parallel to and just prior to the mountain ridge, which slows down the frontal rainband just prior to the mountain barrier. If enough moisture is present,

and

fronts can form convective rainbands. Sea breeze front

thunderstorm A thunderstorm, also known as an electrical storm or a lightning storm, is a storm characterized by the presence of lightning and its acoustic effect on the Earth's atmosphere, known as thunder. Relatively weak thunderstorms are someti ...

lines can become strong enough to mask the location of an approaching cold front by evening. The edge of

ocean currents An ocean current is a continuous, directed movement of sea water generated by a number of forces acting upon the water, including wind, the Coriolis effect, breaking waves, cabbeling, and temperature and salinity differences. Depth contours ...

can lead to the development of thunderstorm bands due to heat differential at this interface. Downwind of islands, bands of showers and thunderstorms can develop due to low level wind convergence downwind of the island edges. Offshore California, this has been noted in the wake of cold fronts.Ivory J. Small (1999)
AN OBSERVATIONAL STUDY OF ISLAND EFFECT BANDS: PRECIPITATION PRODUCERS IN SOUTHERN CALIFORNIA.
Retrieved on 2008-12-26.

References

External links

* * * {{Extratropical cyclones Precipitation Extratropical cyclones Storm Weather hazards Tropical cyclone meteorology Mesoscale meteorology