[h=4]What We Have Done So Far Last time we discussed what severe weather is. We also discussed some aspects of where we find such phenomena within a thunderstorm.
[h=4]This Lesson Now that we know what severe weather is, we will discuss where severe weather comes from.
[h=4]What Causes Severe Weather? The vast majority of severe weather comes from thunderstorms. So, when we ask the question, "Where does severe weather come from?" what we are really asking is, "Where do thunderstorms come from?"
If we look at a thunderstorm,
We will see that it is in two parts, the updraft and the downdraft. While this does not tell us where the thunderstorm comes from, it does give us a clue. Which comes first, the updraft, or the downdraft, or both? The updraft seems to be what starts the thunderstorm going. We will discuss the life-cycle of a thunderstorm in the next lesson. What we want to know here is what gets the air to begin rising
It turns out that there are several things that can get the air to rise:
Convection
This is the most common notion of how air rises:
Convergence
This occurs when winds at the ground run into each other coming from different directions. The leading edge of these winds are called boundaries:
Fronts
We have all seen these on the weather maps. They represent the boundary between warm and cold air. These are often a focus of thunderstorm development. We will begin with a stationary front, here we have two air masses that sit next to each other. There is very little movement in the position of a stationary front.
Next we have a warm front. Here warm air is pushing into and over cold air.
Here we have a cold front, where cold air is moving into an area of warm air, which is forced up and over the colder air at the surface.
An occluded front occurs when a cold front catches up to a warm front. In the picture below we see that the warm front is actually being lifted up over the top of the cold front. The rising air at the leading edge of the warm front will be forced to rise even faster now. A similar situation can result if the cold front rises up and over the warm front.
[h=4]How do you find a front on a weather map? There are two ways of finding a front on the map:
[*=left]Use an existing analysis map that draws the front using the symbols below.
[*=left]Use a surface map and draw your own.
[h=4]How do I draw my own fronts on a weather map? Look for station models on a map. They are of this form:
Note that the direction the wind bnarb is pointing is the direction the wind is coming from.
Use a pencil and lightly draw lines between station models that have the same temperature. Boundaries are located where lines of different temperature are nearly parallel. Sharp differences in temperature between stations can indicate the presence of a front. To see good examples of this, look at a surface analysis that plots fronts alongside surface analyses that show only surface models.
Here I do something of this nature on a local map, I draw lines to illustrate every 2 degrees of temperature. Note that I have to guess where these lines will be by comparing the temperatures at various station models.