Assessing convective mode - ordinary cell, multi cell, and supercell storms

Lab Overview:

The purpose of this lab is to examine and identify the appropriate environments that produce ordinary cells, multi cell systems, and supercells.

Below you will find sounding data (12, and 00 UTC) for six different days.  You will also find the paths for six different radar data sets.

  1. For each sounding, plot the hodograph.  From the hodograph, estimate storm motion.  You can download text data for the soundings.
  2. For each 00 Z sounding, plot it on the CAPE/Shear diagram provided.  For each day, what type of convective mode would you expect?
  3. Now look at the radar data for each day.  For each data set, what type of convective mode(s) do you see?  Save illustrative images showing characteristic features of each mode (e.g., the mesocyclone or hook echo of a supercell).
  4. Now, match the radar data set with the sounding data.  Each radar data set corresponds to one of the sounding data sets.

Radar data sets:

Day A) /mnt/homes/CLASSES/meso/02aug05

Day B) /mnt/homes/CLASSES/meso/07jul04

Day C) /mnt/homes/CLASSES/meso/04may03

Day D) /mnt/homes/CLASSES/meso/10jun03

Day E) /mnt/homes/CLASSES/meso/21jul03

Day F) /mnt/homes/CLASSES/meso/22jun03

 

SOUNDING DATA:

Day 1 - 12 Z

(Springfield, MO)
Day 1 - 00 Z

(Springfield, MO)
Day 2 - 12 Z

(Springfield, MO)
Day 2 - 00 Z

(Springfield, MO)
Day 3 - 12 Z

(Albany, NY)
Day 3 - 00 Z    
Day 4 - 12 Z

(Tampa, FL)
Day 4 - 00 Z

(Tampa, FL)
Day 5 - 12 Z

(Topeka, KS)
Day 5 - 00 Z

(Topeka, KS)
Day 6 - 12 Z

(Tampa, FL)
Day 6 - 00 Z

(Tampa, FL)