WEATHER LAB
How extreme weather happens — the ingredients, the events, and the scales we measure them with. Tap anything in the Tornado Outlook to jump straight to its entry.
> INGREDIENTS
The energy a rising air bubble has. The first ingredient of every storm.
A layer of warm air that holds storms down — until something breaks through.
How high the clouds hang — and why low clouds matter for tornadoes.
Wind changing between the ground and 6 km — the engine that organizes a storm.
A quick stability test — lift a parcel to 5.5 km and see if it's warmer than its surroundings.
Wind turning in the lowest kilometre — the spin a storm can tighten into a tornado.
Fuel alone isn't enough. Something has to launch the first bubble of air.
> EVENTS
Balls of layered ice grown by riding a storm's updraft — the stronger the updraft, the bigger the stone.
A giant spark equalizing billions of volts built up by ice colliding inside a storm.
A storm with a rotating engine — rare, long-lived, and the source of most strong tornadoes.
The atmosphere's engine for moving heat — a life in three acts.
A violently rotating column of air connecting a storm cloud to the ground.