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Determining Severe Weather Based On Stability Indexes and Upper-Level Winds

Determining Severe Weather Based On Stability Indexes and Upper-Level Winds

There are several weather products used to determine the possibility of severe weather for an area. The most common and misunderstood by many weather enthusiasts is the Skew-T chart and the upper-air constant height charts. Since forecast models, the interpretation of Skew-T data and upper-air charts seems to have become a lost art. The following values are not set in stone due to the multiple…

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Tornado Basics And The Enhanced Fujita scale

Tornado Basics And The Enhanced Fujita scale

Earth’s weather can produce various kinds of windstorms which include waterspouts, dust devils and tornadoes. Although they have the common features of a column of rotating air, they are actually formed through different processes. Dust devils and small whirlwinds are caused by severe local heating of the earth’s surface that makes the air rise rapidly. The interaction of air current high up,…

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Synoptic Weather Quiz

Can you ace the synoptic weather quiz. Test your knowledge on cloud types, weather station plots, atmospheric forces, and more.

[quiz-cat id=”2816″]

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Atmosphere Quiz

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Forecasting The Surface Weather Depiction Of Cloud Types & Precipitation

Forecasting The Surface Weather Depiction Of Cloud Types & Precipitation

Cloud Types

Cirrus/Cirrostratus (high etage). These clouds can be very extensive in the horizontal but are relatively shallow vertically speaking. Common vertical extents average from 1,000 to 2,000 feet (ft). Ci or Cs may be present alone or together in layers.

Altocumulus/Altostratus (mid etage).These two cloud types can also be very extensive in the horizontal but the vertical extent of…

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Forecasting Synoptic Scale Weather Elements Associated With Each Frontal System

Forecasting Synoptic Scale Weather Elements Associated With Each Frontal System

This article will discuss forecasting techniques using synoptic feature to determine cloud bases and tops as well as the associated weather with the types of frontal systems.

Frontal Cloud/Precipitation Relationships Active Cold Fronts

Basic Facts.Active cold fronts are slow moving fronts with an average speed 10-15kts. They are considered active because widespread (synoptic scale)…

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Forecasting The Movement & Intensity Of Surface Synoptic Features

Forecasting The Movement & Intensity Of Surface Synoptic Features

The progging of surface anticyclogenesis and cyclogenesis are brought forth and how these effect steering and intensity changes with surface features.

Forecasting Cyclogenesis of Baroclinic Lows Favored Areas of Cyclogenesis

At and just downstream of long-wave trough axes.

Negatively tilted troughs with strong difluence aloft.

Diffluent jet stream pattern (supergradient winds). Major…

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Development & Progging Intensity of Major Shortwaves

Development & Progging Intensity of Major Shortwaves

Development of Major Shortwaves Thermal Advection

The north-south temperature gradient builds when the long-wave pattern is high zonal. This represents an increase in available potential energy for development of short-wave features. This potential energy is transferred to kinetic energy as the short-waves amplify by the process of baroclinic instability.

Major short-wave troughs that…

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Identifying and Forecasting Synoptic Weather Systems

Identifying and Forecasting Synoptic Weather Systems

Identifying synoptic systems and understanding the synoptic situation is critical for forecasting weather in any specific region. In this article we will discuss the identification of synoptic features and progging synoptic systems.

Long Wave Charateristics

The long-wave pattern defines the average storm track; cyclones tend to intensify near and just downstream from the long-wave trough…

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The Types Of Heat Energy Transfer

The Types Of Heat Energy Transfer

The heat source for our planet is the sun. Energy from the sun is transferred through space and through the earth’s atmosphere to the earth’s surface. Since this energy warms the earth’s surface and atmosphere, some of it is or becomes heat energy. There are three ways heat is transferred into and through the atmosphere:

radiation

conduction

convection

Radiation

If you have stood in front…

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Atmospheric Pressure

Atmospheric pressure varies so much, you would have to have weather station one yard apart from each other to get a truly accurate analysis. Changes in pressure result from a change in the quantity of mass over a given point. This may be the result of the actual removal/addition of mass or a change in the density of the atmosphere by differential heating/cooling. The scientific formula for…

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Inter-Tropical Convergence Zone

The Inter-Tropical Convergence Zone (ITCZ – pronounced “itch”) appears as a band of clouds consisting of showers, with occasional thunderstorms, that encircles the globe near the equator. The solid band of clouds may extend for many hundreds of miles and is sometimes broken into smaller line segments.

It exists because of the convergence of the trade winds. In the northern hemisphere the…

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How Lightning Is Created & The Step By Step Process

How Lightning Is Created & The Step By Step Process

The conditions needed to produce lightning have been known for some time. However, exactly when and where lightning strikes is not predictable and likely never will be.

The generation of an electrical field within a thunderstorm is dependent on the size of the frozen precipitation within the storm. Types of frozen precipitation within a thunderstorm include: ice, hail, and semi-frozen water…

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Heat Index Explanation With Charts & Graphs

Heat Index Explanation With Charts & Graphs

Have you ever heard “It’s not the heat, it’s the humidity”? Well, it is actually both the heat AND the humidity. There are some places around the world that are considered hot. But just heat alone does not make high temperatures a threat.

If you search for photographs of severe weather, you are not likely to find many of heat waves like you would of tornadoes, hurricanes, and floods. They…

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Atmospheric Scales

Macroscale

Macroscale (the size of the US or larger). The size of macro scale is greater than 2000 km. The time scale is several days to several weeks. Some examples of macro scale phenomena are the jet axis and the atmospheres general circulation.

Synoptic Scale

Synoptic scale (weather map scale). The size of synoptic scale is 200 to 2000 km. The time scale is tens of hours to…

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Atmospheric Scales

When a weather balloon (Radiosonde) is released into the air, it rises up through the air mass and sends back readings to a receiver in raw code. This cod is then plotted on a Skew-T diagram and is used to gather valuable data to determine the stability of the air mass. Data sent back from these weather balloons from weather stations across the country is used to create the surface and upper air…

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Atmospheric Scales

When a weather balloon (Radiosonde) is released into the air, it rises up through the air mass and sends back readings to a receiver in raw code. This cod is then plotted on a Skew-T diagram and is used to gather valuable data to determine the stability of the air mass. Data sent back from these weather balloons from weather stations across the country is used to create the surface and upper air…