The ingredients
Numerous weather ingredients are needed to create a tornado including but not limited to a dynamic trough an Extratropical Cyclone wind shear bulk shear and Convective available potential energy. These are the main ingrediants for a tornado
Wind shear
Also called a wind gradient is the difference in wind speed over a relatively short distance. wind shear is broken into horizontal and vertical components in the upper atmosphere. Horizontal wind shear is found near frontal zones such as a cold front while vertical wind shear is found near the surface at around 925mb(5000FT) horizontal wind shear is found at around 500mb(18000FT). wind shear also impacts tropical cyclone development by pushing or shearing the high cloud tops toward the side exposing the circulation center
Thunderstorms that cause tornadoes require wind shear in order to organize the storm in such a way that lasts a long period of time. the wind shear acts like a ventilation system for the storm, used air gets evacuated out allowing fresh moist air back in.often during the spring the wind shear will create a rotating updraft transforming the storm into a supercell. thunderstorms in the atmosphere with no vertical shear will weaken as soon as they send out an outflow boundary in all directions because this will block the inflow feeding the storm essentially killing the storm.
Numerous weather ingredients are needed to create a tornado including but not limited to a dynamic trough an Extratropical Cyclone wind shear bulk shear and Convective available potential energy. These are the main ingrediants for a tornado
Wind shear
Also called a wind gradient is the difference in wind speed over a relatively short distance. wind shear is broken into horizontal and vertical components in the upper atmosphere. Horizontal wind shear is found near frontal zones such as a cold front while vertical wind shear is found near the surface at around 925mb(5000FT) horizontal wind shear is found at around 500mb(18000FT). wind shear also impacts tropical cyclone development by pushing or shearing the high cloud tops toward the side exposing the circulation center
Thunderstorms that cause tornadoes require wind shear in order to organize the storm in such a way that lasts a long period of time. the wind shear acts like a ventilation system for the storm, used air gets evacuated out allowing fresh moist air back in.often during the spring the wind shear will create a rotating updraft transforming the storm into a supercell. thunderstorms in the atmosphere with no vertical shear will weaken as soon as they send out an outflow boundary in all directions because this will block the inflow feeding the storm essentially killing the storm.
Convective Available Potential Energy
Also known as available potential energy is the amount of energy a parcel of air has when rising to the upper troposphere. it is simply the measure of the positive buoyancy of the air and therefore is very valuable in predicting severe weather. its a form of fluid instability found in thermally stratified atmospheres in which colder fluid overlies a warmer one. CAPE is always measured in Joules per kilograms(J/Kg)
Also known as available potential energy is the amount of energy a parcel of air has when rising to the upper troposphere. it is simply the measure of the positive buoyancy of the air and therefore is very valuable in predicting severe weather. its a form of fluid instability found in thermally stratified atmospheres in which colder fluid overlies a warmer one. CAPE is always measured in Joules per kilograms(J/Kg)
A skew T-plot showing an early day sounding with a large hydrolapse showing the cooling which is the green line on the left which occurred in the mid levels resulting in a highly unstable atmosphere as surface parcels have become negatively buoyant. The red line is temperature the green line is the dew point and the yellow line is the air parcel lifted
Extratropical Cyclone
Extratropical cyclones are a group of cyclones that originate in the mid latitude regions of the world. They are capable are producing anytype of weather, anything from persistent cloudiness to heavy gales and thunderstorms. These types of cyclones are classified as synoptic scale weather systems that occur outside of the tropics as they are connected to a Warm Front and a Cold Front. When the cyclone is at the mature stage the cyclone drives warm moist air from the gulf of mexico. This warm moist air collides with a blast of cold dry air from the Rocky Mountains. This combination creates a zone of separation called a dry line. At the dry line the warm moist air rises and cools forming Cumulonimbus Clouds. These clouds form thunderstorms
Extratropical cyclones are a group of cyclones that originate in the mid latitude regions of the world. They are capable are producing anytype of weather, anything from persistent cloudiness to heavy gales and thunderstorms. These types of cyclones are classified as synoptic scale weather systems that occur outside of the tropics as they are connected to a Warm Front and a Cold Front. When the cyclone is at the mature stage the cyclone drives warm moist air from the gulf of mexico. This warm moist air collides with a blast of cold dry air from the Rocky Mountains. This combination creates a zone of separation called a dry line. At the dry line the warm moist air rises and cools forming Cumulonimbus Clouds. These clouds form thunderstorms