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Funnel Clouds
A funnel cloud is a funnel-shaped cloud of condensed water droplets, associated with a rotating column of wind and extending from the base of a cloud (usually a cumulonimbus or towering cumulus cloud) but not reaching the ground or a water surface. A funnel cloud is usually visible as a cone-shaped or needle like protuberance from the main cloud base. Funnel clouds form most frequently in association with supercell thunderstorms, and are often, but not always, a visual precursor to tornadoes. Funnel clouds are visual phenomena, these are not the vortex of wind itself. "Classic" funnel clouds If a funnel cloud touches the surface the feature is considered a tornado, although ground level circulations begin before the visible condensation cloud appears. Most tornadoes begin as funnel clouds, but some funnel clouds do not make surface contact and these cannot be counted as tornadoes from the perspective of a naked eye observer, even as tornadic circulations of some intensity a ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
F5 Tornado Funnel Cloud Elie Manitoba 2007
F5, F.V, F 5, F05 or F-5 may refer to: Transportation * SpaceX Falcon 5 proposed space launch rocket Aircraft * Swedish Air Force Flying School, F 5 Ljungbyhed, a Swedish Air Force training wing * Caproni Trento F-5, a jet aircraft of the 1950s * Caproni Vizzola F.5, an Italian fighter aircraft of 1939 * Felixstowe F.5, a 1918 British flying boat * Fokker F.V, a 1922 Dutch aircraft * Northrop F-5, a jet light fighter * F-5 Lightning, a photo-reconnaissance version of the Lockheed P-38 Lightning * Shenyang F-5, a version of the Chinese Shenyang J-5 jet fighter Automobiles * BYD F5, a Chinese compact sedan * DKW F5, a German subcompact sedan * Haval F5, a Chinese compact SUV * Hennessey Venom F5, an American sports car Roads and routes * F-05 (Michigan county highway) * Vermont Route F-5, state highway in Vermont Other * F5 (band), a rock band * F5 (classification), a wheelchair sport classification * Gibson F-5, F5 mandolin, a musical instrument * F5, Inc., a manufacturer of ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Wall Cloud
A wall cloud (murus or pedestal cloud) is a large, localized, persistent, and often abrupt lowering of cloud that develops beneath the surrounding base of a cumulonimbus cloud and from which tornadoes sometimes form. It is typically beneath the rain-free base (RFB) portion of a thunderstorm, and indicates the area of the strongest updraft within a storm. Rotating wall clouds are an indication of a mesocyclone in a thunderstorm; most strong tornadoes form from these. Many wall clouds do rotate; however, some do not. Genesis Wall clouds are formed by a process known as entrainment, when an inflow of warm, moist air rises and converges, overpowering wet, rain-cooled air from the normally downwind downdraft. As the warm air continues to entrain the cooler air, the air temperature drops and the dew point increases (thus the dew point depression decreases). As this air continues to rise, it becomes more saturated with moisture, which results in additional cloud condensation, sometim ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Atmospheric Instability
Atmospheric instability is a condition where the Earth's atmosphere is generally considered to be unstable and as a result the weather is subjected to a high degree of variability through distance and time. Atmospheric stability is a measure of the atmosphere's tendency to discourage or deter vertical motion, and vertical motion is directly correlated to different types of weather systems and their severity. In unstable conditions, a lifted thing, such as a parcel of air will be warmer than the surrounding air at altitude. Because it is warmer, it is less dense and is prone to further ascent. In meteorology, instability can be described by various indices such as the Bulk Richardson Number, lifted index, K-index, convective available potential energy (CAPE), the Showalter, and the Vertical totals. These indices, as well as atmospheric instability itself, involve temperature changes through the troposphere with height, or lapse rate. Effects of atmospheric instability in mois ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Wind Shear
Wind shear (or windshear), sometimes referred to as wind gradient, is a difference in wind speed and/or direction over a relatively short distance in the atmosphere. Atmospheric wind shear is normally described as either vertical or horizontal wind shear. Vertical wind shear is a change in wind speed or direction with a change in altitude. Horizontal wind shear is a change in wind speed with a change in lateral position for a given altitude. Wind shear is a microscale meteorological phenomenon occurring over a very small distance, but it can be associated with mesoscale or synoptic scale weather features such as squall lines and cold fronts. It is commonly observed near microbursts and downbursts caused by thunderstorms, fronts, areas of locally higher low-level winds referred to as low-level jets, near mountains, radiation inversions that occur due to clear skies and calm winds, buildings, wind turbines, and sailboats. Wind shear has significant effects on the control of a ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Vorticity
In continuum mechanics, vorticity is a pseudovector field that describes the local spinning motion of a continuum near some point (the tendency of something to rotate), as would be seen by an observer located at that point and traveling along with the flow. It is an important quantity in the dynamical theory of fluids and provides a convenient framework for understanding a variety of complex flow phenomena, such as the formation and motion of vortex rings. Mathematically, the vorticity \vec is the curl of the flow velocity \vec: :\vec \equiv \nabla \times \vec\,, where \nabla is the nabla operator. Conceptually, \vec could be determined by marking parts of a continuum in a small neighborhood of the point in question, and watching their ''relative'' displacements as they move along the flow. The vorticity \vec would be twice the mean angular velocity vector of those particles relative to their center of mass, oriented according to the right-hand rule. In a two-dimensional fl ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Lapse Rate
The lapse rate is the rate at which an atmospheric variable, normally temperature in Earth's atmosphere, falls with altitude. ''Lapse rate'' arises from the word ''lapse'', in the sense of a gradual fall. In dry air, the adiabatic lapse rate is 9.8 °C/km (5.4 °F per 1,000 ft). It corresponds to the vertical component of the spatial gradient of temperature. Although this concept is most often applied to the Earth's troposphere, it can be extended to any gravitationally supported parcel of gas. Definition A formal definition from the ''Glossary of Meteorology'' is: :The decrease of an atmospheric variable with height, the variable being temperature unless otherwise specified. Typically, the lapse rate is the negative of the rate of temperature change with altitude change: :\Gamma = -\frac where \Gamma (sometimes L) is the lapse rate given in units of temperature divided by units of altitude, ''T'' is temperature, and ''z'' is altitude. Convection and adiabatic expansion ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Synoptic Scale Meteorology
The synoptic scale in meteorology (also known as large scale or cyclonic scale) is a horizontal length scale of the order of 1000 kilometers (about 620 miles) or more. This corresponds to a horizontal scale typical of mid-latitude depressions (e.g., extratropical cyclones). Most high- and low-pressure areas seen on weather maps (such as surface weather analyses) are synoptic-scale systems, driven by the location of Rossby waves in their respective hemisphere. Low-pressure areas and their related frontal zones occur on the leading edge of a trough within the Rossby wave pattern, while high-pressure areas form on the back edge of the trough. Most precipitation areas occur near frontal zones. The word ''synoptic'' is derived from the Greek word ('), meaning ''seen together''. The Navier–Stokes equations applied to atmospheric motion can be simplified by scale analysis in the synoptic scale. It can be shown that the main terms in horizontal equations are Coriolis force and p ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Cold Air Funnel Cloud 2008-08-19 Amarillo
Cold is the presence of low temperature, especially in the atmosphere. In common usage, cold is often a subjective perception. A lower bound to temperature is absolute zero, defined as 0.00K on the Kelvin scale, an absolute thermodynamic temperature scale. This corresponds to on the Celsius scale, on the Fahrenheit scale, and on the Rankine scale. Since temperature relates to the thermal energy held by an object or a sample of matter, which is the kinetic energy of the random motion of the particle constituents of matter, an object will have less thermal energy when it is colder and more when it is hotter. If it were possible to cool a system to absolute zero, all motion of the particles in a sample of matter would cease and they would be at complete rest in the classical sense. The object could be described as having zero thermal energy. Microscopically in the description of quantum mechanics, however, matter still has zero-point energy even at absolute zero, because ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Outflow Boundary
An outflow boundary, also known as a gust front, is a storm-scale or mesoscale boundary separating thunderstorm-cooled air (outflow) from the surrounding air; similar in effect to a cold front, with passage marked by a wind shift and usually a drop in temperature and a related pressure jump. Outflow boundaries can persist for 24 hours or more after the thunderstorms that generated them dissipate, and can travel hundreds of kilometers from their area of origin. New thunderstorms often develop along outflow boundaries, especially near the point of intersection with another boundary (cold front, dry line, another outflow boundary, etc.). Outflow boundaries can be seen either as fine lines on weather radar imagery or else as arcs of low clouds on weather satellite imagery. From the ground, outflow boundaries can be co-located with the appearance of roll clouds and shelf clouds. Outflow boundaries create low-level wind shear which can be hazardous during aircraft takeoffs and landi ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Sea Breeze
A sea breeze or onshore breeze is any wind that blows from a large body of water toward or onto a landmass; it develops due to differences in air pressure created by the differing heat capacities of water and dry land. As such, sea breezes are more localised than prevailing winds. Because land heats up much faster than water under solar radiation, a sea breeze is a common occurrence along coasts after sunrise. By contrast, a land breeze or offshore breeze is the reverse effect: dry land also cools more quickly than water and, after sunset, a sea breeze dissipates and the wind instead flows from the land towards the sea. Sea breezes and land breezes are both important factors in coastal regions' prevailing winds. The term offshore wind may refer to any wind over open water. Wind farms are often situated near a coast to take advantage of the normal daily fluctuations of wind speed resulting from sea or land breezes. While many onshore wind farms and offshore wind farms do not ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Lake Breeze
A sea breeze or onshore breeze is any wind that blows from a large body of water toward or onto a landmass; it develops due to differences in air pressure created by the differing heat capacities of water and dry land. As such, sea breezes are more localised than prevailing winds. Because land heats up much faster than water under solar radiation, a sea breeze is a common occurrence along coasts after sunrise. By contrast, a land breeze or offshore breeze is the reverse effect: dry land also cools more quickly than water and, after sunset, a sea breeze dissipates and the wind instead flows from the land towards the sea. Sea breezes and land breezes are both important factors in coastal regions' prevailing winds. The term offshore wind may refer to any wind over open water. Wind farms are often situated near a coast to take advantage of the normal daily fluctuations of wind speed resulting from sea or land breezes. While many onshore wind farms and offshore wind farms do not ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Low Pressure System
In meteorology, a low-pressure area, low area or low is a region where the atmospheric pressure is lower than that of surrounding locations. Low-pressure areas are commonly associated with inclement weather (such as cloudy, windy, with possible rain or storms), while high-pressure areas are associated with lighter winds and clear skies. Winds circle anti-clockwise around lows in the northern hemisphere, and clockwise in the southern hemisphere, due to opposing Coriolis forces. Low-pressure systems form under areas of wind divergence that occur in the upper levels of the atmosphere (aloft). The formation process of a low-pressure area is known as cyclogenesis. In meteorology, atmospheric divergence aloft occurs in two kinds of places: * The first is in the area on the east side of upper troughs, which form half of a Rossby wave within the Westerlies (a trough with large wavelength that extends through the troposphere). * A second is an area where wind divergence aloft occurs a ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
