Fig. 3.

Temporal interplay between wind, dryness, surface flux, and convective development for the desiccated region (defined in Fig. 2). Shown are time series of (A) the horizontal wind vector (37.5 m above ground) at a random grid point located on the northern boundary of the desiccated region, (B) the percentage of the region that is at its permanent wilting point, (C) the sensible heat flux, and (D) the vertical wind velocity (maximum value below 2 km, red line) and cloud top (gray bars). Quantities in C and D are averaged over the desiccated region. The cloud top is computed as the height where the region-averaged liquid water content drops below 0.005 g$\cdot$kg⁻¹. The horizontal blue bar indicates when precipitation falls over the desiccated region.