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Rainfall evaporation in thunderstorm downdraughts
Author(s) -
Kamburova Petia L.,
Ludlam F. H.
Publication year - 1966
Publication title -
quarterly journal of the royal meteorological society
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 1.744
H-Index - 143
eISSN - 1477-870X
pISSN - 0035-9009
DOI - 10.1002/qj.49709239407
Subject(s) - thunderstorm , lapse rate , environmental science , atmospheric sciences , evaporation , storm , meteorology , relative humidity , humidity , range (aeronautics) , adiabatic process , geology , materials science , physics , thermodynamics , composite material
It is explained that in air descending at speeds of some m sec −1 raindrop evaporation must proceed at a large subsaturation. Under some simplifying steady‐state assumptions, the vertical temperature profiles in thunderstorm downdraughts of a range of speeds are estimated, and it is shown that the most favourable conditions for the production of strong draughts are a small raindrop size, and, especially, an intense rainfall rate and a general lapse‐rate close to the dry adiabatic. The two latter conditions are often associated in severe storm situations, and the downdraught then arrives near the ground with a rather low relative humidity, and a temperature little lower than found generally at the same level.