ATM 10 Lecture Notes - Lecture 10: Bounded Weak Echo Region, Puffy Amiyumi, Arcus Cloud
25 Sep 2016
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Lecture 10: november 5, 2014: general thunderstorms: what makes a cloud a thunderstorm, a cloud must have thunder and thunder is made from lightning; hence, it must have lightning. Thunderstorms must be deep, as found in a cumulonimbus. To form such deep clouds, the atmosphere must have a lot of convective available potential energy (cape): cape (conductive available potential energy) is the positive area between an air parcel and the environment. To make cape large, make the middle level colder and make the parcel much warmer and moister: vertical wind shear is wind changes in speed and/or direction in the vertical direction. Parcels rise and stay buoyant for a deep layer because of daytime heating (sunshine on mountainsides, a sunny morning, etc ) forced lifting (front, convergence along line or area, gust front from another storm, etc : thunderstorm climatology. Thunderstorms occur most often in the tropics, about 1-2000 at any moment.
