Need Severe Wx Setup Refresher

[Kyle Creasey]

It's somewhat embarrassing especially considering I just finished Synoptic Lab last semester but I feel that I need a refresher on what to type of setup to look for for severe weather events.

The one's that pop into my head right now are:

• Incoming Shortwave/system
• Upper-level jets: right-exit region of jet streak (divergence aloft)
• Potential Vorticity Advection (best by talking the it at the level of non-divergence)
• A cap
• Moisture, such as a moisture tongue from the LLJ
• Related to above: dry line

I'm sure I'm missing a few and some of the above might need more details.

Another thing to ask is: what do you at and what do you look for? (such as PVA on a 500 mb map, moisture at 850 MB, etc.)

 

[Chris Allington]

Only things I would add to this are:

-veering wind profile with height for directional shear (atleast if your looking for supercells)

-other boundaries that can initiate convection, or can locally give a storm better tornado potential. (i.e. coldfront, warmfront, wind shift, ect.)

 

[Rob H]

I've always liked these two threads for what to look at on the different charts/maps:

http://www.stormtrack.org/forum/showthread.php?t=3849
http://www.stormtrack.org/forum/showthread.php?t=18991