A Basis for Forecasting Peak Wind Gusts in Non-Frontal Thunderstorms

Abstract

From sixty-two cases of non-frontal thunderstorms passing over reporting stations, a relation is found between peak wind gusts and the temperature difference between the surface air underneath and in advance of the thunderstorm. The temperature under the thunderstorm is forecast by lowering the wet-bulb temperature at the freezing level to the surface along a saturation adiabat on a pseudoadiabatic chart, permitting use of the relation as an aid to thunderstorm gust forecasting.