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The rear flank downdraft (RFD) is a region of dry air wrapping around the back of a mesocyclone in a supercell thunderstorm. [1] These areas of descending air are thought to be essential in the production of many supercellular tornadoes. Large hail within the rear flank downdraft often shows up brightly as a hook on weather radar images ...
Vertical drafts, known as updrafts or downdrafts, are localized regions of warm or cool air that move vertically. A mass of warm air will typically be less dense than the surrounding region, and so will rise until it reaches air that is either warmer or less dense than itself. The converse will occur for a mass of cool air, and is known as ...
A multicellular thunderstorm cluster is a thunderstorm that is composed of multiple convective cells, each being at a different stage in the life cycle of a thunderstorm. It appears as several anvils clustered together. A cell is an updraft/downdraft couplet. These different cells will dissipate as new cells form and continue the life of the ...
See media help. A thunderstorm, also known as an electrical storm or a lightning storm, is a storm characterized by the presence of lightning [1] and its acoustic effect on the Earth's atmosphere, known as thunder. [2] Relatively weak thunderstorms are sometimes called thundershowers. [3]
A mesoscale convective system (MCS) is a complex of thunderstorms that becomes organized on a scale larger than the individual thunderstorms but smaller than extratropical cyclones, and normally persists for several hours or more. A mesoscale convective system's overall cloud and precipitation pattern may be round or linear in shape, and ...
Severe weather is any dangerous meteorological phenomenon with the potential to cause damage, serious social disruption, or loss of human life. [1][2][3] These vary depending on the latitude, altitude, topography, and atmospheric conditions. High winds, hail, excessive precipitation, and wildfires are forms and effects, as are thunderstorms ...
The second method occurs during a supercell thunderstorm, in updrafts within the storm. When winds intensify, the force released can cause the updrafts to rotate. This rotating updraft is known as a mesocyclone. [8] For a tornado to form in this manner, a rear-flank downdraft enters the center of the mesocyclone from the back. Cold air, being ...
The red line is temperature, the green line is the dew point, and the black line is the air parcel lifted. In meteorology, convective available potential energy (commonly abbreviated as CAPE), [1] is a measure of the capacity of the atmosphere to support upward air movement that can lead to cloud formation and storms.