Definitive Guide to Skew-Ts and Hodographs - Part 10b - Interpreting SPC/Model Soundings (cont.)

[@Bloodybunker27]

This is the most thorough coverage of these, on all of youtube. Cant wait for the next one 🤙🏻

[@ConvectiveChronicles]

Thanks so much for the kind words!

[@kainhall]

YES!!! we are finally getting into the stuff i have ZERO CLUE! about . thanks for covering all this stuff..... i know i spammed a few comments asking you to cover EVERY DETAIL! lol

[@kainhall]

8:00 i FINALLY understand what the heck that means......thanks SO much!!! . last year i guess NE montana had a lot of surface inflow biased storms then..... saw it ALL the time!!! . . ive been checking the SPC soundings page EVERY DAY! for almost a year now..... every 00Z and 12Z sounding for GGW simply looking for patterns and trying to figure it out myself . now i dont have to "ass-u-me".... or google for 3 hours with SLIGHTLY wrong keywords.... and find NOTHING! . . . . again.... thanks SO MUCH!!! for your time and knowledge!!! . im a mechanic whos dad took the time to teach me everything he knew for free not a lot of people will do that (colleges make BANK doing it)

[@kainhall]

and ya.... ive seen (in NE MT) like 70s or 80s...... and the storms sucked or 10.... and its spinning like a top . but its still another indicator....... 1 of 100 pieces and NO ONE! likes a puzzle with the last piece missing

[@kainhall]

so ya.... what ive learned about hodographs..... i dont need to know what the boxes mean anymore . but its still nice to be able to "cross reference" (double check? idk) my understanding of the atmosphere

[@ConvectiveChronicles]

You bet; happy to hear this is helpful! I figured it would be a good way to round out the skew-t/hodograph series to go over all the mumbo-jumbo on the SPC soundings, as there’s so much packed into those things.

[@deaconartweiner3559]

Great, great series...waiting eagerly for 10c to be posted. Your videos have helped me more than anything else I have seen to understand the dynamic processes in convective storm development. thanks again

[@ConvectiveChronicles]

Thank you so much for the kind words! I'm so happy to hear you've found the videos helpful. 10c will be up soon!

[@grahamhagerty8648]

GREAT: Your efforts are appreciated! Stay with the series, I will be there.

[@ConvectiveChronicles]

Thank you very much!

[@aaronjones1469]

That was an awesome explanation and guide. Thank you. 👍

[@ConvectiveChronicles]

You bet; thank you!

[@tornadotrackersinc6352]

Can't wait for the next one! Keep up the great work!!!

[@ConvectiveChronicles]

Thanks so much!

[@ltdjag7577]

I have a question. Most of the wind barbs are S to Sw yet storms are cyclonic. Explain please how the counterclockwise rotation develops from S to SW wind barbs. Time for my question. Does downward or upward pressure cause the storm to rotate ? Or is the rotation external to the storm, such as cold or warm fronts, dry lines, outflow boundaries etc. thanks great series

[@ConvectiveChronicles]

Thanks for the kind words on the series...going to need some sciency terms to answer your questions here, so if at the end you're a little unclear about some of the terminology, let me know. Thunderstorms attain rotation and become supercells by tilting preexisting environmental horizontal "spin", called vorticity, into the vertical. That's why we need ambient environmental wind shear, both in the low-levels and throughout the entirety of the storm depth, for supercells. Once a storm has undergone this process, dynamic forces sustain this rotation. Rotation about a vertical axis (i.e. the rotating updraft) must be balanced by a pressure gradient force pointing toward the center of rotation where the pressure is lowest/the updraft and rotation is strongest. Through vertical stretching as updraft speed increases with height, rotation continues to increase. Eventually, the supercell will develop cyclonic rotation on its right flank and anticyclonic rotation on its left flank, often leading to the storm splitting into two different storms. The right mover (cyclonically rotating storm) will often dominate. As for the S/SW wind barbs and their relation to cyclonic rotation, as long as there is ample ambient vorticity in the environment ready to be tilted, cyclonic supercells are possible. Note that in this case, there is ample veering (clockwise curvature) in the low-level winds with height. Also, remember that wind shear is comprised of both speed shear and directional shear, where speed shear is the changing of wind speed with height. For example, in the sounding in the video, the 700 mb winds are SW at 60 kt and the 500 mb winds are SW at 80 kt. So even if the direction of the winds doesn't change much with height, you can still have ample wind shear in the form of speed shear. Speed shear creates that ambient horizontal vorticity (think of a spinning vortex tube) that can be tilted into the vertical so that storms can attain rotation, while directional shear assists in amplifying cyclonic rotation through the processes described in the paragraph above. I hope this helps; please let me know if you have any more questions.

[@ltdjag7577]

@@ConvectiveChronicles Thanks for the wonderful explanation. Just what’ I was looking for. Thanks

[@christophercolumbusplaygam1958]

Where would I find that dark sounding?

[@ConvectiveChronicles]

On either College of DuPage or Pivotal Weather. Model data can be clicked on and a forecast sounding appears for that location.

[@SShrikke]

What does crosswise vorticity near the surface do to a storm?

[@ConvectiveChronicles]

It decreases the tornado threat. Tornadoes are much more likely when the storm can ingest low level streamwise vorticity.

[@SShrikke]

@@ConvectiveChronicles Thanks, and also for the angle on the slinky, is a more tilted updraft more tornado favorable or less? I guessed it would be less

[@ConvectiveChronicles]

Oftentimes, too much tilt is a bad thing, as that, in essence, means that the updraft is getting pushed over by strong upper level winds (usually not enough instability for robust updrafts, and they get pushed over/shredded by the strong upper level winds)