We have an outflow boundary approaching. What's that? It's where rain cooled air from a large cluster of thunderstorms pushes under warmer, moister air and causes it to rise. The result is a line of thunderstorms, or showers that is usually pretty impressive on the radar. They look like a cold front on radar; and they are, in a way, but instead of a cool, high pressure dome to clear away the system, the unstable air can remain until a real front arrives and pushes the entire mess away.
We get 'em here in West-Central FL almost every day in the summer. Beautiful things if they're not bringing trees or limbs down on you. :-)
ReplyDeleteWe get some really powerful outflows. One, which I wrote about, traversed from North Texas to the coast. At the time, I didn't know anything about the systems. Since then, I've watched them on radar, or in water vapor satellite loops.
DeleteThe most interesting, to me, are what appear like a smoke ring; when there is nothing to steer a large thunderstorm, and it remains nearly still. The super cooled bow cloud traverses in all directions and creates a large ring on the radar.
Yup. Things of beauty, they are. Here, we also get almost-daily seabreezes that show up on the radar. Watching the seabreeze run into outflow boundaries and create new thunderstorms is one of the things I do for fun. [It also helps in figuring out which part of the county might be dry enough to set on fire the next day. :-) ]
DeleteThey can appear from nowhere. A group of thunderstorms build dozens of miles away, the cold air creates more, and the entire system rolls in on what started as a clear, beautiful day.
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