• Atmosphere
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• v.31 no.4
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• pp.421-431
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• 2021

The Yeongdong region is frequently vulnerable to heavy snowfall in winter in terms of societal and economical damages. By virtue of a lot of previous efforts, snowfall forecast has been significantly improved, but the performance of light snowfall forecast is still poor since it is very conducive to synoptic and mesoscale interactions, largely attributable to Taeback mountains and East Sea effects. An intensive observation has been made in cooperation with Gangwon Regional Meteorological Office and National Institute of Meteorological Studies in winter seasons since 2019. Two distinctive Cold Air Damming (CAD) events (14 February 2019 and 6 February 2020) were observed for two years when the snowfall forecast was wrong specifically in its location and timing. For two CAD events, lower-level temperature below 2 km ranged to lowest limit in comparisons to those of the previous 6-years (2014~2019) rawinsonde soundings, along with the stronger inversion strength (> 2.0℃) and thicker inversion depth (> 700 m). Further, the northwesterly was predominant within the CAD layer, whereas the weak easterly wind was exhibited above the CAD layer. For the CAD events, strong cold air accumulation along the east side of Taeback Mountains appeared to prevent snow cloud and convergence zone from penetrating into the Yeongdong region. We need to investigate the influence of CAD on snowfall in the Yeongdong region using continuous intensive observation and modeling studies altogether. In addition, the effect of synoptic and mesoscale interactions on snowfall, such as nighttime drainage wind and land breeze, should be also examined.