Heavy rainfall events become significant in human affairs when they are combined with hydrological elements. The problem of forecasting heavy precipitation is especially difficult since it involves making a quantitative precipitation forecast, a problem well recognized as challenging. Chennai (13.04°N and 80.17°E) faced incessant and heavy rain about 27 cm in 24 hours up to 8.30 a.m on 27th October 2005 completely threw life out of gear. This torrential rain caused by deep depression which lay 150km east of Chennai city in Bay of Bengal intensified and moved west north‐west direction and crossed north Tamil Nadu and south Andhra Pradesh coast on 28th morning.
In the present study, we investigate the predictability of the MM5 mesoscale model using different cumulus parameterization schemes for the heavy rainfall event over Chennai. MM5 Version 3.7 (PSU/NCAR) is run with two‐way triply nested grids using Lambert Conformal Coordinates (LCC) with a nest ratio of 3:1 and 23 vertical layers. Grid sizes of 45, 15 and 5 km are used for domains 1, 2 and 3 respectively. The cumulus parameterization schemes used in this study are Anthes‐Kuo scheme (AK), the Betts‐Miller scheme (BM), the Grell scheme (GR) and the Kain‐Fritsch scheme (KF). The present study shows that the prediction of heavy rainfall is sensitive to cumulus parameterization schemes. In the time series of rainfall, Grell scheme is in good agreement with observation. The ideal combination of the nesting domains, horizontal resolution and cloud parameterization is able to simulate the heavy rainfall event both qualitatively and quantitatively.
