Some Observations of Vertical Velocities and Precipitation Sizes in a Thunderstorm

Abstract

Observations were made of a thunderstorm which formed over a vertically-pointing X-band pulsed-doppler radar set. They show details of the vertical velocity field in the storm and yield information about the growth of the precipitation particles. It is inferred that a downdraft starts early in the life of the cloud and is accompanied by precipitation particles which break up and evaporate under the cloud base.