Working With Soundings

[David Drobny]

I'm knee deep in Tim's books; presently I am on page 63 of the Storm Chaser's Handbook trying to decipher soundings. I think I understand that section, but I'm having trouble translating that into practice. Namely, Chase Case #6.

Google hasn't been much help either. I've been all over the internet. Every time I think I understand it, I realize I don't.

Let's play with the 12Z chase-days soundings. Most of my frustration lies in the fact the Skew-Ts given in the chase cases don't look like the Skew-Ts in the book. For example, I don't see the dry and warm adiabats. I'm unsure what the thin blue and orange-dashed lines between the DP and Temperature indicate, and I would like that explained to me.

Here's the Topeka sounding, which someone said they liked on that chase: http://i1133.photobucket.com/albums/m596/risleyj/12zdayoftopskew-t.gif.

Springfield, MO: http://i1133.photobucket.com/albums/m596/risleyj/12zdayofSGFskew-t.gif

And since I live here, Nashville TN: http://i1133.photobucket.com/albums/m596/risleyj/12zdayofBNAskew-t.gif.

I understand the concepts, at least I think I do, but the book knowledge isn't being brought home without examples. Please help me with these. How do I read it? Understand it? What am I looking for early/late in a chase day (other than the obvious -- high lapse rates)?

This has me stuck, and I really want to learn. Thanks for any help you can provide.

 

[Adam Lucio]

Depending on where you get your soundings from, the colors, products and looks can be quite different. Perhaps it may be better to understand where the lines would appear in relation to each other rather than just the colors [if that makes any sense at all] after you look at them for awhile you will start to get a feel for them. They can be quite intimidating at first.

Here are two write-ups posted on the Convective Addiction site, maybe they will further help you.

http://convectiveaddiction.com/2010/01/16/skew-t/

http://convectiveaddiction.com/2010/03/05/1059/

 

[mikegeukes]

Some links about Skew-T's
http://www.spc.noaa.gov/exper/soundings/help/index.html
http://www.theweatherprediction.com/thermo/skewt/
http://www.theweatherprediction.com/thermo/parameters/
http://www.theweatherprediction.com/thermo/soundings/
http://www.meted.ucar.edu/mesoprim/skewt/
http://meteorology.lyndonstate.edu/common/edulinks/AF_SkewT_manual.pdf

There are more links out there dealing with soundings.

 

[David Drobny]

Thanks for the links.

I am wondering -- starting from the surface, which dry adiabat does one "lift"?

In the Skew-T found in the example of a capped parcel found here (http://convectiveaddiction.com/2010/03/05/1059/), the parcel lifted along the dry adiabat is the one at 25C. Why not lift a parcel at 23C, which is the surface temperature? Why are we lifting the parcel only at 25C?

At, at what point do we lift the parcel along the moist adiabat?

I am so confused.

Thanks.

 

[Rob H]

I wouldn't recommend doing it piecemeal like you are now - you have a good chance of ending up confused without ever really understanding them. What worked best for me was starting with a blank Skew-T and drawing it from scratch. You'll need to do this a few times, but you'll start to instantly recognize where to draw certain values, and then you see how they combine to produce other parameters like LFC and LCL.

 

[David Drobny]

I plowed through to p 100 of Tim's SCH, Verily, it made stuff make sense. I went back through the earlier material and achieved enlightenment.