Re: Juice question for the expert... please
Posted by
JAC on 8/19/2010, 12:03 pm
Yes.
But you have to consider more than that.
Instability in the air is another factor for generating a hot tower.
Dr Master's actually talked about this a couple days ago - the temperature difference between the water and the upper troposphere.
That is one thing I always check.
A good quantitative measurement of that is Lifted Index or LI.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lifted_index
The more negative the number, the more unstable the air.
The other important parameter is CAPE.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Convective_available_potential_energy
I would say roughly a CAPE > 3000, LI , -5 and an anti-cyclone overhead will have a good chance to fire a hot-tower.
Two ways to look for a hot tower:
1) A cumulus nimbus cell that overshoots the cirrus canopy and tops out above 15km.
2) Rain-rate that max's out at the top of the scale as seen on the A-train satellites. |
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