You are right that the storm mode has a lot to do with the wind profile. In fact, that is probably the most significant factor to examine when determining storm type. There are generally two groups of storm types one group consists of ordinary, multicellular, and supercellular. The other is linear vs. cellular.
Ordinary vs. multicell vs. supercell
The above is titled in order from least organized to most organized.
-Ordinary, or atmosphere, or pulse, cells/storms have a short life span (30-45 minutes perhaps) and consist of one main updraft that condenses, produces cloud and rain, and then dies quickly as the downdraft forms right on top of the updraft and essentially kills it by weighing it down by rain. These storms occur in weakly-sheared or un-sheared environments. They are common during the mid-summer when shear is weak. They are also commonly found away from major surface boundaries, although the existence of a surface boundary is neither a necessary nor a sufficient condition for oridnary cells to occur.
-Multicell storms are slightly better organized than ordinary cell storms for the reason implied in their naming: they consist of multiple updraft pulses (instead of just the one with an ordinary cell) that form either discretely or continuously with an existing updraft to keep a storm complex alive. Although each individual updraft and thus each individual convective core still only lasts for the same time period as an ordinary cell does, the continual redevelopment of new updrafts causes an organization of the storm in the form of a cold pool forming at the surface (as a result of evaporating rain sinking to the ground and spreading out and propagating along with the complex) or through latent heating in the mid to upper levels which, given enough time, will lead to a positive vorticity source, known as an MCV (mesoscale convective vortex), and at which point the storm complex will have grown into an MCS (mesoscale convective system). These MCSs can persist for hours (perhaps 12 or more) and travel hundreds of miles due to their organized nature. However, just the same, if things get screwed up in the environment, some multicellular complexes only last a short time (maybe one or two hours). What makes the difference between an ordinary cell and a multicell system is the degree of wind shear. Being slightly more organized, multicell systems form in areas of weak to moderate deep-layer shear. However, they can also form in environments in which the only wind shear is in the lowest 1-3 km, but is strong in that layer (with little to no shear above).
-Supercell storms are the most organized and require moderate to strong deep-layer shear (over at least 4 to 6 kilometers). Supercells storms, as I'm sure you know, consist of a strong, generally consistent (but still vacillating) main updraft that gives the storm its life. Given the amount of shear that causes supercells, there is usually minimal interference between the updraft and downdraft (as opposed to an ordinary cell). Despite being smaller than most multicell complexes, supercells can still persist for hours (see the severe weather event on 12 March 2006 which featured a supercell that tracked across at least four states over at least a 9 hour period).
Note in the above that I didn't mention using instability as a forecast parameter. That's because all three storm types can occur for the same values of instability, so something like CAPE is not very useful in distinguishing which storm type is expected to be dominant. Use wind profiles (amount of low-level and deep-layer shear) to determine.
Linear vs. cellular
While the amount of wind shear generally doesn't distinguish well between linear and cellular storm modes, the relative angle between the deep-layer shear vector and the line that represents the surface boundary that kicks the storms off is generally a pretty good distinguishing factor. The greater the angle between the surface boundary and the deep-layer shear vector (i.e., closer to 90°), the more likely cellular storms will be favored over linear storms and vice versa. Also, the type of boundary can make a difference in storm type. Storms initiated by a cold front are more likely to be linear in nature due to the linear lifting mechanism (a solid slab wedge of cold air displacing another one). On the other hand, drylines move via different mechanisms that a simple density current like a cold front such that storms that form off of drylines are more likely to be cellular. The amount of capping to resist updrafts can also impact storm mode. When there is stronger capping, cellular storms may be more favored since it's less likely enough forcing will be present over a large enough area to result in linear storms. However, that's not always the case.
*I can only write so much here. I invite you to check out
www.theweatherprediction.com for some pretty good introductory info on the subject. Also the COMET modules on NCAR's METED site, specifically the ones concerning
convective weather are a great learning source. The modules span a range of skill and knowledge levels from beginner through expert. You can probably learn a lot through those.
