NAME: __________________________ SS#: ____________________________ Grade: ___________/20
1. (3 pts)What must a thunderstorm be doing in order to be classified as a severe storm?
2. (1 pt)Why can supercells last for hours while other thunderstorms only last for a few minutes to an hour?
3. (4 pts)What 2 processes that fully account for the movement of a supercell (and just about any other weather feature) and define these two processes.
4. (1 pt)If a supercell thunderstorm is 'backbuilding', that means it is developing towards it's inflow (usually towards the south where the warm, moist air at low levels is coming from). Is backbuilding a characteristic of advection or propagation?
5. (1 pt) If you're stormchasing and you see one storm with a fluffy anvil top and another one with a backsheared anvil, which one would you want to go for?
6. (2 pts) Name two differences between HP supercells and LP supercells.
7. (1 pt) Name a couple different ways you can tell a shelf cloud from a wall cloud?
8. (2 pts) If I am observing radar to keep an eye out for tornadoes during a severe weather outbreak, what features should I look for on a reflectivity image and a velocity image?
9. (1 pt) Why is it important for there to be a slant in a supercell updraft?
10. (1 pt) Mammatus clouds, contrary to popular belief, are not indicators of a tornado. What do mammatus clouds say about they storm they accompany?
11. (2 pts) Explain how the anvil in a strong thunderstorm is formed.
12. (1 pt) What layer of the atmosphere does an overshooting top of a thunderstorm penetrate?
FYI: Thunderstorms are actually an important source of ozone (the stuff that keeps us all from getting skin cancer because it absorbs harmful UV rays). Lightning produces ozone (3 oxygen atoms bonded together) by ionizing oxygen molecules. In addition, it helps trasport these molecules up to where they need to go. Ozone is more dense (heavier) than most other molecules of air so it needs help to get up into the layer of the atmosphere that's the answer to question 14.