Airflow and Precipitation Trajectories Within Severe Local Storms Which Travel to the Right of the Winds

Abstract

A kinematic airflow model is proposed for severe local storms which travel to the right of the winds in the middle troposphere. The model is an extension of that proposed by Browning and Ludlam (1962), and represents an open system in which an updraft and a precipitation-maintained downdraft are fed persistently by air approaching the storm from its right flank. A qualitative consideration of precipitation trajectories enables the principal features of the radar structure of many severe local storms to be explained.