Here is a good example from earlier this week of how human beings influence the earths atmosphere. On August 4-5 over Indianapolis, IN, storms initiated just downwind of the citys urban footprint. As the temperature gradient tightened between the city and the cooler surrounding rural areas during the afternoon, causing an urban heat island effect, an area of increased mesoscale convergence formed at the urban-rural interface. Southwesterly winds forced some of this airmass upward, allowing the storms to form. As the storms neared the end of their life cycles, the almost completely vertical downdraft forced the colder air in all directions as the air hit the ground. This created a very visible outflow boundary depicted by the ring that appeared on radar around the storms and the city.
Posted on: Fri, 08 Aug 2014 20:57:26 +0000
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