Some characteristics of convective cells in the Greek National Hail Suppression Program

Abstract

The objective of this study is to provide first information on some characteristics of the convective cells observed within the Greek area. To meet this objective, a set of two years (1984 – 1985) of manually digitized weather radar measurements was used. The diurnal and interseasonal distributions of the maximum echo tops height of the convective cells are studied. Unimodal distributions for all the categories of convective cells are found except for those with tops between 12.0 to 13.5 km, which depict a bimodal one. Finally, the life time of the convective cells, a very important factor for the better operations of the NHSP, is investigated. The resulting short-lived characteristics of the observed convective cellsmeans that their probability to become potential hail producers is not very high.