The horizontal grid spacing was set to 10 km and the model had 50 vertical levels up to 10 hPa. We used the following parameterisations: the Morrison two-moment scheme (Morrison et al., 2009) for cloud microphysics, Mellor–Yamada–Nakanishi–Niino scheme (Nakanishi and Niino, 2009) for turbulence closure, New Kain–Fritsch scheme (Kain, 2004) for cumulus convection, and the Dudhia shortwave scheme (Dudhia 1989) and a rapid radiative transfer model (Mlawer et al., 1997) for radiation. The Yonsei University scheme (Hong et al., 2006) was also tested, but model output varied little with different parametrisations. OISST data were used for the bottom boundary condition over the sea surface. ERA-Interim reanalysis data were employed for the initial and boundary conditions of other prognostic variables.