Some Inferences About the Updraft Within a Severe Local Storm

Abstract

Various features of the radar echo from a severe local storm are interpreted with the purpose of defining the nature of its updraft. The analysis illustrates the methodology of using conventional radar data to study airflow and also confirms a number of important features of an airflow model previously proposed by the author (1964). For example, it is confirmed that an updraft was present within, and was largely responsible for, the radar vault. The updraft within the vault was inclined upward with a component toward the storm's left flank below the level of the tropopause and in the reverse sense at higher levels. A novel feature of this analysis is that shafts of precipitation descending from neighboring storms are shown to have been drawn toward, and upward within, the vault. A study of the shape of these shafts of precipitation has permitted inferences to be made concerning the nature of the inflow toward the updraft.