ResearchMy contributions in recent years all center on severe and unusual weather phenomena in California. This includes tornadic thunderstorms, winter cyclones and precipitation, Diablo winds and more. The referreed publications in this area can be found in the AMS journals Weather and Forecasting and Monthly Weather Review. I have also authored or coauthored several Technical Memoranda and Technical Attachments for the Western Region of the National Weather Service and published in Weatherwise. |
Multiple Vortex Supercell Tornado Near Chico, CA The chief conceptual contribution to the body of knowledgeon severe thunderstorms may not seem novel as of this date, but was somewhat controversial at the time--namely, that supercell thunderstorms can and do occur in California, and that some of these are associated with tornadoes that are mesocyclone-induced. |
Mobile Mesonet Vehicle 3, May 25, 2000 The first step in proving this absolutely non-controversial notion (to the scientific community) to highly-skeptical forecasters with rigidified concepts of the severe weather forecasting problem in California, was to document them. Braun and Monteverdi (1991) was the first such documentation and even then many forecasters in the state dismissed the case as an oddity. |
The second step was to educate forecasters (after educating myself) about the controls on severe thunderstorms. Heretofore, buoyancy was about the extent of the ingredients forecasters considered when forecasting thunderstorms in California. Elsewhere, of course, the role of shear in augmenting buoyancy and organizing thunderstorms was well known. |
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A series of technical memoranda/attachments, seminars (as Visiting Scientist to the National Weather Service in 1990 and 2000) to forecast offices and collegial interactions, such as recent ones with Alex Tardy (Forecaster, KSTO), Warren Blier, Wilfred Pi and Duane Dykema (SOO, and Forecasters, respectively, at KMTR), and many of the staff at KHNX, have gone a long way to eliminating the long-standing bias to buoyancy. I have also served as Visiting Scientist to the National Severe Storms Lab in 1990 and 2000 and was a participant (complete with NSSL Travel Orders) in Sub-VORTEX 1999 and STEPS 2000 with the Mobile Mesonets in each. In 2000, I was "captain" of Unit 3 for two weeks. |
Relaxing With the Mobile Mesonet Crews After A Day in the Field Several students have been instrumental in this research, including current MS in Applied Geosciences candidates Gary Lipari and Ted Schlaepfer (Honorable Mention Poster at 20th Conference on Severe Local Storms). |
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Other areas of research involve California winter storms, El Niño and La Niña, and their impacts on California precipitation. An important centerpoint of what I have done in this area is to properly characterize the "unusualness" of an event. My work on El Niño, and La Niña and California precipitation, Diablo Winds, major flood producing storms in California, was grounded in explaining not only the meteorology of these events, but the statistical context...how unusual are these events when they occur. |
Mobile Mesonets, NOAA 1 and Radiosonde Balloon Crew in eastern Colorado in May 2000
Expertise Summary |
Basis for Expertise |
| Primary | |
| Synoptic Meteorology and Weather Analysis and Forecasting | Published Research in the Referreed Literature |
| Severe Thunderstorms and Tornadoes | Published Research in the Refereed Literature |
| Californinia Weather and Climate | Published Research in the Refereed Literature |
| Forensic Meteorology | 30 Years of Experience |
| Secondary | |
| Atmospheric Dynamics and Thermodynamics | Components of Synoptic Meteorology |
| Physical Meteorology | Components of Synoptic Meteorology
Analyses for Environmental Impact Reports Class taught |
| Tertiary | |
| Micrometeorology and Physical Climatology | Analyses of Enivronmental Impact Reports
Class taught. |
Monteverdi, J. P., and R. Edwards, 2010: The redevelopment of a warm core structure in Erin: A case of inland tropical storm formation. Electronic J. Severe Storms Meteor., 5 (6), 1–18.
Shafer, J. C., W. J. Steenburgh, J. A. W. Cox, and J. P. Monteverdi, 2006: Terrain influences on synoptic storm structure and mesoscale precipitation distribution during IPEX IOP3. Mon. Wea. Rev. 134, 478-497.
Monteverdi, J. P., C. Doswell III, and G.S. Lipari, 2003: Shear parameter thresholds for forecasting tornadic thunderstorms in northern and central California. Wea. Forecasting, 18, 357-370.
Hanstrum, B. N., Mills, G.A., Watson, A., Monteverdi, J.P., and Doswell, C.A.III, 2002: The cool season tornadoes of California and Australia. Wea. Forecasting, 17, 705-722.
Monteverdi, J.P., W. Blier, G. Stumpf, W. Pi and K. Anderson, 2001: First WSR-88D documentation of an anticyclonic supercell with anticyclonic tornadoes: the Sunnyvale/Los Altos, California tornadoes of 4 May 1998. Mon. Wea. Rev., 129, 2805-2814.
Monteverdi, J.P. and J. Null, 1998: A balanced view of the impact of the 1997/98 El Ni–o on California precipitation. Weather, 53, No. 9, 310-313.
Monteverdi, J.P. and J. Null, 1998: The Impact of the 1997-98 El Ni–o on Precipitation in the West. Natural Hazards Observer. Volume XXII, Number 3--January 1998.
Monteverdi, J.P. and S. Johnson, 1996: A supercell thunderstorm with hook echo in the San Joaquin Valley, California. Wea. Forecasting, 11, 246-261.
Berg, N., M. Heggli, and J. Monteverdi, 1995: The influence of meteorology on rime and snow chemistry at a mountaintop site in northern California. Water Air Soil Poll., 81, 25-36.
Monteverdi, J.P. and J. Quadros, 1994: Convective and rotational parameters associated with three tornado episodes in northern and central California.WEA. FORECASTING., 9, 165-178.
Braun, S.A. and J.P. Monteverdi, 1991: An investigation of a mesocyclone-induced tornado occurrence in northern California. WEA. FORECASTING, 6, 13-31.
Monteverdi, J.P., Braun, S.A., and T.C. Trimble, 1988: Funnel clouds in the San Joaquin Valley, California. MON. WEA. REV. 116, 782-789.
Byrne, R., Granger, O., and J.P. Monteverdi, 1983: Recent rainfall trends on the margins of the subtropical deserts: a comparison of selected Northern Hemisphere regions. QUART.RES, 3, 1-12.
Monteverdi, J.P., 1976: The single air mass disturbance and precipitation characteristics at San Francisco, MON. WEA. REV. 104, 1289-1296.
Monteverdi, J.P., and B.L. Wood, 1973: The December 1972 freeze and its effects on the eucalyptus forest of the Oakland-Berkeley Hills.WEATHERWISE. 26, 160-167.
Monteverdi, J.P., 1973: The Santa Ana weather type and extreme fire hazard in the Oakland-Berkeley Hills.WEATHERWISE. 26, 118-121.
2. Refereed Technical Memoranda and Invited Conference Publications
Monteverdi, J.P., and J. Null, 1997: El Ni–o and California Precipitation. National Weather Service Technical Attachment 97-31.
Monteverdi, J.P., 1996: Flood-producing storm types in California. Invited Paper in Preprints. Symposium on the California Floods of the Winter of 1994-1995. Sierra College, Rocklin, CA.
Monteverdi, J.P. and J. Quadros, 1993: Convective and rotational parameters associated with three tornado outbreaks in northern and central California. National Weather Service Western Region Tech. Mem., NWS-222.
Monteverdi, J.P., 1993: A case study of the operational usefulness of the SHARP Workstation in forecasting a "cold-sector" mesocyclone-induced tornado event in northern California. National Weather Service Western Region Tech. Mem., NWS-219.
Monteverdi, J.P. and S.A.Braun, 1988: An investigation of the 24 September 1986 "cold sector" tornado outbreak in northern California. National Weather Service Western Region Tech. Mem., NWS-203, 52 pp.
Monteverdi, J.P., 1986: Translation of German weather service documents for D-Day. Proceedings of the Conference on the Role of Meteorology in the D-Day Invasion. American Meteorological Society, Boston.
Monteverdi, J.P., 1984: Comparisons among three record-rain producing storms in north-central California. Excerpted in "Summary of the LANDSLIDES AND FLOODING CONFERENCE, Stanford University, August 1982". National Academy of Sciences, Washington, D.C.
Monteverdi, J.P., 1980: The effects of the physical environment on climate. JOUR. WATER AIR SOIL POLL., 12, 23-27.
3. Papers Presented at Conferences and Symposia
Monteverdi, J. P., Umscheid, M. and E. Bookbinder, 2010: Two tornadic thunderstorms in ostensibly weak deep layer shear environments in southeastern Colorado: cyclic supercells of May 25 (Kiowa County) and May 31 (Baca County) 2010 (Poster P10.15). AMS 25th Conference on Severe Local Storms to be held 11-15 October, 2010 in Denver, CO.
Monteverdi, J.P., and R. Edwards, 2008: Documentation of the overland reintensification of Tropical Storm Erin over Oklahoma, August 18, 2007. Paper number: P4.6. 24th Conf. Sev. Local Storms, 27-31 October, 2008, Savannah, Georgia
Monteverdi, J.P., E. Polito, M. Gough, R. Bethke, and T. Seddon, 2008: An Analysis of a Prolific Tornado-producing Cyclic Supercell Thunderstorm in Thayer County Nebraska, May 24, 2004. Paper number: P3.1, 24th Conf. Sev. Local Storms, 27-31 October, 2008, Savannah, Georgia.
Polito, Elizabeth, K. Tanner and J. P. Monteverdi, 2008: Assessing middle school and college students' conceptions about tornadoes and other weather phenomena.Paper number: P7.2. 24th Conf. Sev. Local Storms, 27-31 October, 2008, Savannah, Georgia.
Monteverdi, J.P., R. Edwards, G. Stumpf and D. Gudgel, 2006: An analysis of the 7 July 2004 Rockwell Pass, CA tornado: highest elevation tornado tocumented in the US. 23rd Conf. Sev. Local Storms, Preprints, St. Louis, MO.
Monteverdi, J.P., K. Saussy, A. Cross, C. Meherin, C. Medjber and S. Lau, 2006: An analysis of the 22 May 2004 Furnas County, Nebraska tornadic supercell. 23rd Conf. Sev. Local Storms, Preprints, St. Louis, MO.
Shafer, J. C., W. J. Steenburgh, J. A. W. Cox, and J. P. Monteverdi, 2006: Terrain influences on synoptic storm structure and mesoscale precipitation distribution during IPEX IOP3. Mon. Wea. Rev. 134, 478-497.
Umscheid, M.E., J. P. Monteverdi, and J.M. Davies, 2006: Photographs and analysis of an unusually large and long-lived firewhirl. Electronic J. Severe Storms Meteor., 1, no. 2, 1-13. (Abstract, PDF)
Frieberg, E. and J. Monteverdi, 2005: Relationship of Warm Season Cycles in Onshore Pressure Differences to Temperatures in North-central California. Amer Met Soc National Meeting, January 2005. (PDF) (Pictures)
Gose, E., Frieberg, E., Meherin, C., and J. Monteverdi, 2005: Production of Television Forecasts for San Francisco State University Campus Television and the World Wide Web. Amer Met Soc National Meeting, January 2005. (PDF) (Pictures)
Blier, W., Monteverdi, J. and J. Null, 2005: The Historic San Francisco Flood of 25 February 2004. Amer Met Soc National Meeting, January 2005.
Frieberg, E. and J. Monteverdi, 2005: Relationship of Warm Season Cycles in Onshore Pressure Differences to Temperatures in North-central California. Amer Met Soc National Meeting, January 2005.
Gose, E., Frieberg, E., Meherin, C., and J. Monteverdi, 2005: Production of Television Forecasts for San Francisco State University Campus Television and the World Wide Web. Amer Met Soc National Meeting, January 2005.
Landolt, Scott D., Porter, Daniel L. and John P. Monteverdi, 2004: An Analysis of the June 23rd, 2002, Brown County, South Dakota Tornadic Cyclical Supercell. Preprints, P10.5, 22nd AMS Conference on Severe Local Storms, Hyannis, MA
Schlaepfer, Theodore, B. and John P. Monteverdi, 2004: Radar Documentation of a Cyclic Tornadic Supercell in the San Joaquin Valley, California. Preprints, P7.5, 22nd AMS Conference on Severe Local Storms, Hyannis, MA.
Monteverdi, J.P., W. Blier, G. Stumpf, W. Pi and K. Anderson, 2000: First WSR-88D documentation of an anticyclonic supercell with anticyclonic tornadoes: the Sunnyvale/Los Altos, California tornadoes of 4 May 1998. In Submission For Review, Mon. Wea. Rev.
Monteverdi, J. P., C. Doswell III, and G.S. Lipari, 2000: Shear parameter thresholds for forecasting California tornadic thunderstorms. Preprints---20#th# AMS Conference on Severe Local Storms,.
Lipari, G.S., and J.P. Monteverdi, 2000: Convective and shear parameters associated with northern and central California tornadoes during the period 1990-94. 20th AMS Severe Local Storms Conf., Orlando, FL
Schlaepfer, T. and J.P. Monteverdi, 2000:A case study of a well-documented right-moving tornadic supercell in the San Joaquin Valley, California. 20th AMS Severe Local Storms Conf., Orlando, FL., this volume..
Monteverdi, J.P., Hanstrum, B., Doswell, C., Watson, Andrew and G. Lipari: 1998: Cool Season Tornadoes in Austrailia: Comparison with California cases. Presented at the 1998 Severe Storms Conference, American Meteorological Society, Sept. 14, 1998.
Monteverdi, J.P., 1993: Convective and rotational parameters associated with two mesocylone-induced tornado outbreaks in north-central California. Presented at the 1993 Severe Local Storms Conference, St. Louis, October 4.
Monteverdi, J.P. and J. Quadros, 1993: Convective and rotational parameters associated with three tornado episodes in northern and central California. Presented at 1993 PACLIM Conference, Asilomar, April.
Monteverdi, J.P. and E. Seibel, 1984: A documentation of oceanographic and meteorological anomalies on the West Coast during the El Nino event of 1982-83. SYMPOSIUM ON THE EL NINO EVENT OF 1982-1983. American Association for the Advancement of Science, Annual Meeting, San Francisco State University, June 1984.
Monteverdi, J.P., 1983: Synoptic controls of recent warm season precipitation increases in a rainfall-sensitive agricultural region of California. SYMPOSIUM ON HUMAN-ATMOSPHERE INTERACTIONS IN THE SEMIARID REGIONS OF THE UNITED STATES. American Association for the Advancement of Science, Annual Meeting, Logan, Utah, June 1983.
Monteverdi, J.P., 1982: Comparisons among three record-rain producing storms in north-central California. CONFERENCE ON LANDSLIDING AND FLOODING, Stanford University, August 1982.
Monteverdi, J.P., 1980: An overview of the significance, patterns and meteorological controls of the precipitation variability of the Central Valley of California. American Association for the Advancement of Science, Annual Meeting, Davis, CA, June 1980.
Monteverdi, J.P., 1978: A drought and an end to the drought. Association of American Geographers, Annual Meeting, New Orleans, April 1978.
4. Laboratory Manuals
Monteverdi, J.P. and J. Michaelsen, 1979: A satellite photo atlas of selected weather patterns. California Book Co., Ltd., Berkeley, CA, 95 pp.
Monteverdi, J.P., 1974: Synoptic meteorology of California weather anomalies. California Book Co., Ltd., Berkeley, CA, 415 pp.
Monteverdi, J.P., Vannucci, S. and L. Gummerson, 1970: Descriptive meteorology of California weather anomalies. California Book Co., Ltd., Berkeley, CA. Two volumes: Vol. 1, 75 pp; Vol. 2, 225 pp.
5.
Website Authoring
http://home.earthlink.net/~montever/Singularity/DecFeb.html
http://home.earthlink.net/~montever/Jan23_00/Jan23.html
http://www.wdc.ndin.net/calnina.html