This resource is intended for use as a job aid by operational weather forecasters in live warning situations and as a reference tool to better understand some aspects of severe thunderstorm warning events. Thumbnail images show typical representatives for sixteen radar reflectivity and velocity signatures as well as three primary severe storm types. Each signature links to content describing detection techniques and conceptual and diagnostic information to help determine storm severity. The majority of the examples shown are southern hemisphere storms in Australia; examples from the northern hemisphere are noted.
Identify signatures associated with potentially severe convection.
Describe appropriate techniques for identifying particular radar signatures within a volume scan.
Use knowledge of conceptual models of convective storm structures to determine the mode of convection indicated by particular radar signatures.
Given a convective storm type, determine the location and timing of potential storm-induced damage.
Estimate the likelihood that a particular radar signature indicates the presence of severe convection.
radar, Bow Echo and Strong Rear Inflow Jet, Damaging Low-level Winds, Hook Echo, Low-level Convergence, Low-level Mesocyclone, Tight Low-level Reflectivity Gradient, Forward Flank Notch, Mid-level Mesocyclone, Three-Body Scatter Spike, 50dBZ Echo Top Height, Single Cell, Anomalous Storm Motion, Storm Top Divergence, Bounded Weak Echo Region, Very High Reflectivity, Weak Echo Region, Pulse Severe and Multicell, Linear Multicell Mesoscale Convective Systems MSC, Supercell
2012-12-22: Supercell Conceptual Model, Definition, Fig. 6 was updated to properly show relative strength of shear vectors at level 4, correct improper labeling in the legend, and to correct an error in the caption regarding the location of the low at level 4.
2017-06-01: converted animation to mp4.
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