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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 ...
Supercell storms are large, usually severe, quasi-steady-state storms that form in an environment where wind speed or wind direction varies with height ("wind shear"), and they have separate downdrafts and updrafts (i.e., where its associated precipitation is not falling through the updraft) with a strong, rotating updraft (a "mesocyclone").
Squall line. A squall line, or more accurately a quasi-linear convective system (QLCS), is a line of thunderstorms, often forming along or ahead of a cold front. In the early 20th century, the term was used as a synonym for cold front (which often are accompanied by abrupt and gusty wind shifts). Linear thunderstorm structures often contain ...
Because of the chaotic nature of updrafts and downdrafts, pressure perturbations are important. As thunderstorms fill into a distinct line, strong leading-edge updrafts – occasionally visible to a ground observer in the form of a shelf cloud – may appear as an ominous sign of potential severe weather.
Organized thunderstorms and thunderstorm clusters/lines can have longer life cycles as they form in environments of sufficient moisture, significant vertical wind shear (normally greater than 25 knots (13 m/s) in the lowest 6 kilometres (3.7 mi) of the troposphere) [5]), which aids the development of stronger updrafts as well as various forms ...
The resulting thunderstorms are “very dangerous” for air travel, Struckmann said. This is due to the “severe turbulence caused by updrafts, downdrafts, winds and hail.”
For tornadoes to form, we need thunderstorms, which have very strong updrafts and downdrafts, said Bill Gallus, a professor in the department of Geological and atmospheric sciences at Iowa State ...
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.