Thunderstorms Flashcards
Thunderstorm
“One or more cumulonimbus clouds accompanied by sudden electrical discharges called lightning, which cause a sound called thunder”
How do you know if it’s a THUNDERSTORM?
✓ Large cumuliform type clouds
✓ Dark colored
✓ Rain bearing
✓ Lightning
✓ Thunder
Thunderstorm triggers
- Convection
- Orographic uplift
- Convergence
- Frontal uplift
Elements of a thunderstorm
- Precipitation
- Icing
- Hail
- Microburst
- Wind Shear
- Turbulence
- Lightning
- Tornado
Precipitation
- water released from
the clouds - rain, snow, or hail
Hail
– Balls of ice
– Solid Precipitation
Icing
- causes friction
- may prevent the airplane from becoming airborne at normal take-off speed
Clear Ice
also known as glaze ice, is a dangerous type of ice that forms when large, supercooled water droplets freeze slowly on an aircraft’s surface, creating a smooth, transparent, and hard coating.
Rime Ice
is a white, opaque, granular deposit of ice formed by the rapid freezing of supercooled water droplets on surfaces below freezing, often appearing as feathery or spiky ice formations.
Mixed ice
Combination of Clear ice and rime ice
Microburst
small scale, very intense downdrafts which descend to the surface and upon contact with the surface, diverge outwards in all directions
Windshear
Wind shear is a RAPID change in wind speed and/or direction over a short distance
It can be present at any level and can exist in both a horizontal and vertical direction
Turbulence
– irregular motion of the air resulting from eddies and vertical currents
Lightning
– Electrical discharge
– Caused by separation of positive and negative charges during condensation
Tornado
– Narrow, violently rotating column of air
– warm, humid air collides with cold, dry air
– forms a condensation funnel made up of water droplets, dust and debris
Importance to pilots with regards to thunderstorm
- Thunderstorms last only 45mins. to 1 hour
- There may be multiple thunderstorms in an area at different stages
- Find an alternate route! Do not wait it out
- Know where the storm is going
- Options:
- Fly Around
- Land Before the storm
- Make a U-turn
- Divert
