A synoptic decomposition of rainfall over the Cape south coast region for the period 1979-2011 is presented. This decomposition is achieved by considering the average daily low-level circulation to develop a synoptic climatology, using a Self Organising Map (SOM) technique. Daily area-average rainfall derived from weather station rainfall data is related to the identified synoptic types. It is shown that ridging high pressure systems are responsible most of the annual rainfall (41%) over the Cape south coast region, followed by tropical-temperature troughs (24%), cut-off lows (COLs) (13%), frontal troughs (12%), continental trough – ocean ridge combinations (8%) and weak synoptic flow (2%)
Reference:
Engelbrecht, C.J, Landman, W.A and Engelbrecht, F.A. 2013. The relative contribution of synoptic types to rainfall over the Cape south coast region. In: 29th Annual Conference of South African Society for Atmospheric Sciences, Durban, South Africa, 26-27 September 2013
Engelbrecht, C., Landman, W., & Engelbrecht, F. (2013). The relative contribution of synoptic types to rainfall over the Cape south coast region. http://hdl.handle.net/10204/7359
Engelbrecht, CJ, WA Landman, and FA Engelbrecht. "The relative contribution of synoptic types to rainfall over the Cape south coast region." (2013): http://hdl.handle.net/10204/7359
Engelbrecht C, Landman W, Engelbrecht F, The relative contribution of synoptic types to rainfall over the Cape south coast region; 2013. http://hdl.handle.net/10204/7359 .