NSSL | Education | Ideas

Ideas for Teaching

• Stereo photography
• Why radar can't (usually) see tornadoes
• Graphing information
• Vectors for wind speed
• Calculating %
• Simple math
• Not so simple math
• Wildflowers & rainfall

Graphing Data

Page 1 | Page 2 | Page 3 | Page 4

Cloud Top Height Measurements

The following graph shows the cloud top height of a tornadic supercell as seen by two different radars (thick, colored lines) and the GOES satellite (Xs and Os). The theoretical cloud top height is shown as a dash-dot line just above 12 km.

The height of the storm as calculated from satellite data shows a fairly steady height, varying between 12.5 and 15 km over about three hours (19:45 to 23 UTC). The height from the radars, however, are only steady in the first two hours (19 to 21 UTC), then jumps around wildly.

To find out why, see page 4...

Last updated: March 26, 2002
Created by: DSZ