Atmosphere LabConvection, clouds & lightning · hurricanes, Coriolis & surge

Playback

Atmosphere

Click & drag to add

Cell readout

Sim time0
Max updraft0 m/s
Cloud top0 km
Sky covered0 %
Rain rate0 mm/h
Lightning0 flashes
Max downdraft0 m/s
Cold pool0 K

What to look for

  • The sun heats the ground unevenly; hot patches launch bubbles of warm air that rise (buoyancy). Try the Heat tool to trigger one.
  • A rising parcel cools until it is saturated: that height is the cloud base. Humid air gives a lower base and a taller cloud.
  • Condensation releases latent heat, so the cloud keeps accelerating upward (switch to Temp. anomaly view to see warm cores) until it hits the stable tropopause and spreads into an anvil.
  • Falling rain drags air down and evaporating rain cools it: a downdraft and a spreading cold pool that can trigger new cells at its edge.
  • Tall, charged cloud gives lightning. Cloud shade also blocks the sun, throttling further heating.
  • Wind shear tilts the updraft; moderate shear lets the storm outlive its own rain, strong shear tears towers apart.

Environment

Click & drag on the map

Storm status

TD
—
Max wind0 kt
Central pressure0 hPa
Sea temp below0 °C
Eye radius0 km
Forward speed0 km/h
Storm age0

Storm-surge indicator

0.0m
Nearest coast: –

Intensity history

What to look for

  • Warm water is the fuel. Below about 26.5 °C the storm starves; the cold wake it leaves behind weakens later storms. Paint warm or cold patches and watch the response.
  • Coriolis turns inflow into a spin (counter-clockwise here). With the slider near 0 the air rushes straight in, the vortex never organises and the storm fills.
  • Eye and eyewall: the strongest winds and heaviest rain (Radar view) sit in a ring just outside the calm eye, which clears as the storm intensifies.
  • Wind shear pushes the cloud mass downshear, exposes the centre and caps intensity. Watch the lopsided clouds.
  • Land cuts off the heat source: the winds decay within hours of landfall.
  • Surge is highest on the right-front side where winds blow onshore: bigger, stronger and slower storms raise more water.