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STRIKE FINDER
Weather Avoidance Concepts
The Strike Finder system reliably detects the electrical activity that is
present in all thunderstorms, enabling you to avoid lightning, and all the
hazards produced by thunderstorms.
When the thunderstorm menace is embedded or hidden by clouds or poor
visibility, Strike Finder provides an especially useful picture of the threat.
When you can not see, Strike Finder can!
In this section we examine the thunderstorm process and its hazards, and
the benefits of Strike Finder technology and Radar.
What Is A Thunderstorm?
A thunderstorm is a cumulonimbus cloud that contains lightning and
thunder. Strong wind gusts, heavy rain, lightning, hail and tornadoes are
typical hazards produced by thunderstorms. They usually exist for only a
short time, rarely over two hours for a single storm.
The National Weather Service definition of a thunderstorm includes:
"accompanied by thunder and lightning"! It must produce lightning to be
labeled a thunderstorm. It must be electrically active. Lightning is always
present, in and near, a thunderstorm.
Thunderstorm Process
Thunderstorm development requires three elements:
1) Moisture
2) Lifting Agent
3) Instability
A cumulus cloud forms when moist air is lifted by a thermal, frontal, or
orographic process. If the atmosphere is unstable, the lifted air mass will
continue to rise and develop into a thunderstorm cell (see Figure 35,
p.41). As the building mass soars upwards, moisture condenses and
precipitation-induced downdrafts develop. This process creates violent wind
shear and turbulence, and lightning within the cell. Precipitation begins to
fall from the cloud base, and the thunderstorm is born.
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DIGITAL WEATHER AVOIDANCE
PILOT'S
GUIDE
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