Florida sea breeze convection.

[David Draun]

Florida sea breeze convection always amazes me while I'm there. Lightning is nothing short of intense. When one dissipates, another one goes up off the outflow boundary. What are the typical conditions on a given day in south Florida? (CAPE, LCL, LFC, EL, etc.) I would look for soundings but I don't know the WX station codes.

 

[Simone Lussardi]

Try this (72201 KEY WEST):

http://weather.uwyo.edu/upperair/naconf.html

[Broken External Image]:http://weather.uwyo.edu/upperair/images/2004070612.72201.skewt.gif

[Broken External Image]:http://62.202.7.134/hpbo/images/7038.gif

:wink:

 

[Steven Williams]

Looks a great spot for a holiday. CAPE 2500 would be just perfect.

 

[rdale]

That's where NCAPE (normalized) comes into play... Notice the CAPE is long and stringy - nowhere near the "usefulness" of Midwest CAPE that is short and fat.

- Rob

 

[B Ozanne]

Does anybody know why Florida is called the Sunshine State? It never seems very sunny there. More like hazy, hot, humid, and rainy. States out west blow away Florida in terms of % of possible sunshine.

 

[Richard Halter]

Florida is called the "Sunshine State" so that they could sell more swampland to frozen NE and MW people looking for an easy out. :wink:

 

[David Draun]

Thanx everyone for the info. Those are some low LCL's/LFC's. The CINH is quite low too, although I have seen a 3-day string of rain-free summer days down there, but that was closer to Jacksonville. That was the only time I've seen a Floridian atmosphere capped in summer. Not a single TCU/Cb in the sky. It got dangerously hot too.

 

[Simone Lussardi]

Thanx everyone for the info. Those are some low LCL's/LFC's. The CINH is quite low too, although I have seen a 3-day string of rain-free summer days down there, but that was closer to Jacksonville. That was the only time I've seen a Floridian atmosphere capped in summer. Not a single TCU/Cb in the sky. It got dangerously hot too.

When the atm. happen to be capped in the tropics (often for a strong ridge of high pressure) usually when the CAP breaks or remove suddenly by some very weak baroclinic effect escaped from the mid-lat or by a trp. wave, you can get the most impressive heat-induced storms on earth.

After a week CAP, need nothing to put the CAPE over 7000 J/Kg, especially close-to-sea locations where the sea-surface temp is well over 29°C.

This storms are unbelievably powerful, especially in winds, lighting and heavy rain (never hail out...). They often merge into severe MCS in the evening, and bring anvile crawlers for hours, often at a frequency of 1-2 per second :shock:

Note that the wind can be very strong also with a vertical column almost saturated of moisture ! You can imagine what happen if there is a dry slot in the middle atmosphere.... well, here it happen last here and we get a bow at over 100 mph:

[Broken External Image]:http://www.ghidini.cn/temp/supergust.gif

:wink:

 

[David Draun]

When the atm. happen to be capped in the tropics (often for a strong ridge of high pressure) usually when the CAP breaks or remove suddenly by some very weak baroclinic effect escaped from the mid-lat or by a trp. wave, you can get the most impressive heat-induced storms on earth.

After a week CAP, need nothing to put the CAPE over 7000 J/Kg, especially close-to-sea locations where the sea-surface temp is well over 29°C.

This storms are unbelievably powerful, especially in winds, lighting and heavy rain (never hail out...). They often merge into severe MCS in the evening, and bring anvile crawlers for hours, often at a frequency of 1-2 per second :shock:

I get what you're saying. I experienced two small, very locally intense MCS's as well as VERY intense isolated thunderstorms last week. One storm dropped a waterspout off Estero Island which I saw out my hotel window. The lightning was just incredibly intense which NWS warned as frequent to excessive CG activity. In my opinion, throughout summer, SPC should have "see text" over FL each day, because it can get nasty. :wink:

7000 J/kg? That's Plainfield, IL and Jarrrell, TX instability! :shock:

 

[rdale]

"I experienced two small, very locally intense MCS's"

No such things... A MCS is a cluster of thunderstorms at least 250km long and lasting 3 hours or more...

"In my opinion, throughout summer, SPC should have "see text" over FL each day, because it can get nasty"

SPC outlooks severe thunderstorms - not "nasty" ones ;> FL doesn't get much severe weather in the summer.

- Rob

 

[David Draun]

Would MCC (mesoscale convective cluster) be a more appropriate term to describe organized multicell activity?

 

[rdale]

Going the wrong way ;> MCC's are larger and colder topped than MCS's.

- Rob

 

[Simone Lussardi]

MCC like this:

[Broken External Image]:http://www.hko.gov.hk/wxinfo/intersat/1024img/040710_0723b.jpg

The green blob is around -80 / -90 C