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This study investigated the environmental factors responsible for the development of heavy rainfall in eastern Japan during the passage of Typhoon Hagibis (2019) by using mesoscale gridded analysis data as well as observed data. Environmental indices for diagnosing stability and moisture conditions were examined. It was found that the whole troposphere is almost saturated and the column total water vapor content is extremely large. In the lower troposphere we identified layers of moist absolutely unstable states with the thickness deeper than 2 km. Such deep moist absolutely unstable layers as well as abundant moisture content and almost saturated troposphere set a high potential for convective development. Under these favorable environmental conditions, the fact that the heights of the absolutely unstable layers' bottom are comparable to the mountain elevations is considered to be favorable for topographic lifting of unstable, moist air, which will trigger and activate strong convection and hence heavy rainfall. In spite of a moderate amount of convective available potential energy and a nearly moist-adiabatic lapse rate, moist absolute instability, abundant moisture, and high humidity jointly play a key role to increase the potential for generating the present heavy rainfalls. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This study documented the environmental properties of precipitation systems that produced the July 2018 Heavy Rainfall event in Japan. The gridded analysis data were used to diagnose the potential for the development of convective systems in terms of thermodynamic environmental indices. Precipitable water vapor was extremely larger than that seen in the climatology of warmseason quasi-stationary convective clusters (QSCCs). Such an extreme moisture content was realized by very humid conditions at the middle-levels. In contrast, temperature lapse rate in a convectively unstable layer was not so significant in comparison to the QSCC climatology. Among the environmental indices, K Index was shown to describe the potential for the rainfall development. Based on the analysis, the roles of moisture content and profile on the convection development were discussed. It was suggested that the middle-level high humidity contributes to the occurrence of the present heavy rainfall by minimizing negative effects of environmental mixing and by decreasing vertical displacements to reach levels of free convection. In regions where heavy rainfall occurred, an automated algorithm detected the development of QSCCs, which were mostly categorized as a linear type. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]