WRF-CORDEX Gusts - no values produced in xarray

[mllarson]

Hello,

I recently compiled the WRF-CORDEX module for WRFV4.0 on Cheyenne because I am interested in examining not only wind speeds but also wind gusts along the Colorado Front Range. I compiled the module and built WRF executables for the default and instantaneous CORDEX variables. I completed a 3-hr test run to output files/variable values every 30 minutes for the innermost domain. When I spatially plot the gusts across my innermost domain (this WRF run is 1 parent domain (9-km) with 2 nested domains (3-km and 1-km)) I receive the following output:



However, when I try to plot the gusts for a specific grid cell (the NCAR Mesa Lab), I receive "0." values:



In the above figure, I plotted the WSGSMAX value at the Mesa Lab coordinates (solid blue line), the maximum WSGSMAX values across the entire 1-km domain (dashed blue line), and the WRF 10-m wind speeds (solid red line).

When I look at the dataset using xarray and try to look at specific south_north and west_east indicies, this is what outputs for the gust variables:

print(ds_1_cdx['WSGSMAX'][:,69,63].values)

[0. 0. 0. 0. 0. 0. 0.]

The arrays appear to be filled with zeros:

print(ds_1_cdx['WSGSMAX'].values)

[[[0. 0. 0. ... 0. 0. 0.]
  [0. 0. 0. ... 0. 0. 0.]
  [0. 0. 0. ... 0. 0. 0.]
  ...
  [0. 0. 0. ... 0. 0. 0.]
  [0. 0. 0. ... 0. 0. 0.]
  [0. 0. 0. ... 0. 0. 0.]]

 [[0. 0. 0. ... 0. 0. 0.]
  [0. 0. 0. ... 0. 0. 0.]
  [0. 0. 0. ... 0. 0. 0.]
  ...
  [0. 0. 0. ... 0. 0. 0.]
  [0. 0. 0. ... 0. 0. 0.]
  [0. 0. 0. ... 0. 0. 0.]]

 [[0. 0. 0. ... 0. 0. 0.]
  [0. 0. 0. ... 0. 0. 0.]
  [0. 0. 0. ... 0. 0. 0.]
  ...
  [0. 0. 0. ... 0. 0. 0.]
  [0. 0. 0. ... 0. 0. 0.]
  [0. 0. 0. ... 0. 0. 0.]]

 ...

 [[0. 0. 0. ... 0. 0. 0.]
  [0. 0. 0. ... 0. 0. 0.]
  [0. 0. 0. ... 0. 0. 0.]
  ...
  [0. 0. 0. ... 0. 0. 0.]
  [0. 0. 0. ... 0. 0. 0.]
  [0. 0. 0. ... 0. 0. 0.]]

 [[0. 0. 0. ... 0. 0. 0.]
  [0. 0. 0. ... 0. 0. 0.]
  [0. 0. 0. ... 0. 0. 0.]
  ...
  [0. 0. 0. ... 0. 0. 0.]
  [0. 0. 0. ... 0. 0. 0.]
  [0. 0. 0. ... 0. 0. 0.]]

 [[0. 0. 0. ... 0. 0. 0.]
  [0. 0. 0. ... 0. 0. 0.]
  [0. 0. 0. ... 0. 0. 0.]
  ...
  [0. 0. 0. ... 0. 0. 0.]
  [0. 0. 0. ... 0. 0. 0.]
  [0. 0. 0. ... 0. 0. 0.]]]

Has anyone else had this issue? I am unsure of why I cannot look at specific grid cells/see any of the data in the arrays if the gust data will plot spatially. This problem occurs with and without changing the WRF-CORDEX files for instantaneous variables. I will also attach my namelist.input and wrfcdx output file if you would like to reference those files.

I would appreciate any help!

Thank you,
McKenzie Larson

 

[kwerner]

Hi McKenzie,
First I'd like to apologize for the long delay in response. Many of us have been out of the office over the last few weeks and are now trying to get caught up. Our lab at NCAR does not manage or support WRF-CORDEX, unfortunately. If you are able to repeat the problem using the standard/basic version of WRF, I can try to help. Otherwise, I'd suggest trying to contact someone who manages WRF-CORDEX to see if they are able to help.