Hodographs

[Jared Martin]

Can someone explain what a hodographs is and what you use it for. Also, what the lines represent. Thanks

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[Taylor Wright]

http://lmgtfy.com/?q=hodograph

Hodographs plot the direction and velocity of the wind with height and can give you an idea of how likely a storm in that environment would be to rotate, as well as what direction and velocity the storm will be moving at. Big, looping, curved hodographs are generally more favorable for tornadoes.

 

[Jared Martin]

Thank you so much

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[Jared Martin]

Can you please send an example of a hodographs representing a tornado potential storm and one that isnt

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[Tim Paitz]

Someone needs to make a parody of "Photograph" by nickelback and call it "hodograph".

 

[Jared Martin]

Lol

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[Steve Miller]

Jared, I highly recommend utilizing the search function here on Stormtrack. We have many, many years of content, a lot of which has to do with hodographs and even hodos as applied to specific severe weather days. This goes for any weather subject you are curious about.
Enjoy the site.

 

[Robert Forry]

Agreed with Steve, Jared. I haven't been on ST that long myself but have found the information on her very valuable to my severe storm education. And you can always ask the vets on here. They've all been helpful to me.

 

[Tim Paitz]

Game of Thrones nerds would call it a Hodorgraph.

 

[John Shewchuk]

Hi Jared. While there many verbal explanations of Hodographs, graphic examples and pictures can convey much more information. As such, a good place to start is the multitude of information available via Haby's Hints. Specifically, here is one page discussing basic hodogrpah drawings > http://www.theweatherprediction.com/habyhints/275/

The hodograph is often used to visualize Storm Motion with respect to the sounding's wind profile. This can be seen on this RAOB video >

Beyond that, weather enthusiasts like to study the hodograph's Storm Relative Helicity (srH) data, which helps measure severe weather potential, which can be seen on this video >

Finally, you are welcome to experience the Hodograph using the freely available RAOB Reader program, which is currently used by numerous academic institutions for educational purposes > http://raob.com/raobreader.php

 

[Caleb Routt]

Jared- a hodograph is used to see what the winds are doing at different heights. We could talk all day on hodographs because there are just a lot to know about them. But very generally the more curved the hodograph is the more chance to see a tornado. The more straight line they are the less of a chance of a tornado. I've got 2 examples here:


I highly recommend these links to better understand hodographs. Make sure you take the time to let all that information process in your head!

Reed Timmer does a great job explaining them here: https://tvnweather.com/podcasts/24

Here is a step by step guide to hodographs: http://www.weather.gov/media/lmk/soo/Hodographs_Wind-Shear.pdf

Good luck!

 

[Kyle Brittain]

Someone needs to make a parody of "Photograph" by nickelback and call it "hodograph".

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