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A number of squall line passages over the Pearl River Delta (PRD) are documented for the first time based on the wind data collected by a 356 m-high meteorological tower with high temporal resolution (10 Hz). The mean wind and turbulence characteristics are studied based on a sample of six cases. The mean wind profile is consistent with the international standard for wind engineering, but the turbulence intensity profile has quite significant deviations. Moreover, the energy spectrum of the fluctuating wind is found to be consistent with the −5/3 law, as expected in the inertial subrange. For the purpose of wind gust nowcasting, the performance of a nowcasting algorithm based on upper air wind and thermodynamic profiles is examined using the limited dataset. The results highlight that the mean wind gust estimates are sufficient to nowcast the surface wind gust as measured by the anemometers, but for an extreme squall line case, the maximum wind gust estimates would be useful. The information in this paper is believed to be useful for wind engineering applications and weather nowcasting for wind gusts associated with subtropical squall lines, and, to the best of the authors' knowledge, this is the first study of its kind for the PRD region. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article reports that a tropospheric wind profiler was introduced to Xi Chong, Shenzhen, China in the year 2012. This profiler was used to obsersve the typhoon Usagi crossed Shenzhen in September 2013. It operates at a microwave frequency and measures the changes in refractivity associated with atmospheric discontinuities.