The Bow Echo: Observations, Numerical Simulations, and Severe Weather Detection Methods

Bowing convective line segments (bow echoes) are often associated with swaths of damaging downburst winds and are sometimes accompanied by tornadoes that may reach violent (F4) intensity. Bow echoes range in length from less than 20 km to more than 100 km, the latter forming a broad bowing line segment. In this manuscript, both past and recent observations of bow echo convective systems will be reviewed. The meteorological environments of long-lived derecho-producing convective systems will also be presented. This will be followed by recent conceptual models and numerical simulations of bowing convective systems. Finally, the evolution of two large-scale bow echo convective systems, which produced extensive wind damage and weak tornadoes, will be described. With the ongoing installation of a comprehensive network of Doppler radars, the National Weather Service forecaster will be required to know more about conceptual storm structure models of severe convective storms. It is hoped that this literature review will result in a greater understanding of such convective systems that are often known producers of significant severe weather events.