Let me explain a bit about how a thunderstorm is made/develops and why tomorrow is so unique for this time of year. This should also give you some insights on why storms develop. There are three types of storms orographic, airmass and frontal storms. These three storms are made by different ways, but the same ingredients. Orographic storms are formed due to land masses such as valleys, mountains, etc that force the air upwards, known as an updraft. Airmass storms are localized storms or pop up storms due to localized convection (Ill explain convection in a minute). And frontal storms, these storms are formed in front of or along a frontal cold boundary. The sun comes up, and it begins to heat up the surface temperature known as conduction. As a force, unstable masses of air, push to the ground (downdraft), causing the heated air to rise, as hotter air rises and cold air pushes down. As the heated air rises, it heats the air into the atmosphere, this is called convection. The higher the heat has to rise to cool, the more severe storms are typically produced. As the air rises you see those big clouds called cumulus clouds start to form. As they form, the hot air turns cold and into condensation, which produces the rain as the storm matures. Once the heated air has gone high enough to get to an equal temperature, it begins to rain, thus a thunderstorm is born. The energy is then pushed back down to earth in the form of severe weather. The frontal boundaries during the summer are generally very weak and fairly stable due to the consistent heat throughout the day and the night. The last few weeks has been pretty hot during the day and quite a bit cooler (almost 20 degrees) at night. This gives the cold boundary a chance to strengthen and in turn forces the convection to go higher than normal to get to a normalized temperature. So there you have the general idea of how a thunderstorm forms. I do not always post except for during severe weather events, but I am always around if anyone ever has a question they would like to be answered, feel free to ask me and Ill answer your questions. And for those that dont know much about me, I am a certified radar analyst I use the Gibson Ridge Software, the same as your meterologist on TV use with Allison House HD radar feeds. I also am a certified meterologist and certified sky warn spotter and also submit reports to the NWS for their attention via E-Spotter. Hope that clarifies a little about me. Chad Jackson
Posted on: Sun, 27 Jul 2014 19:25:58 +0000
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