THEWEATHERMOGIL:: S marks the spot with this towering cumulus cloud
My wife immediately likened the shape of this towering cumulus cloud to a backwards question mark. Meteorologist Adam Caskey (KSAT-TV, San Antonio, TX) noted that the image actually “painted a picture of the updraft.”
And paint a picture it did. An examination of radiosonde (weather balloon) winds for nearby Miami, FL showed winds at different atmospheric layers (up to about 18,000 feet) were light and variable (Fig. 4). This likely allowed the updraft to assume its rather unusually contorted shape. Note that radiosondes at Key West, FL and Tampa, FL (not shown) both showed light low-level winds, but not the same variability as did the Miami radiosonde.
Later that afternoon, while driving across Alligator Alley (I-75) from Naples to Fort Lauderdale, I witnessed larger, more developed, thunderstorms, some of which had shapes similar to the morning “question mark” cloud (Fig. 5). The late afternoon Miami, FL radiosonde also showed a similar light and variable wind pattern at lower levels.
© 2016 H. Michael Mogil
Originally posted 6/17/16