First time I have ever been able to get a clear ish picture of a mesocyclone and the inflow. To the best of my knowledge it never had a tornado touch down, but it was severe thunderstorm watched.

Wildest rainbow I've seen yet, initially was a normal rainbow in a blue sky and then it went to a double rainbow, then the color started bleeding into the sky around it

It went from not raining to this in under 2 minutes. I was on backroads surrounded by fields with nowhere to stop and seek shelter. I got the life threatening tornado warning after this

Definitely in the running for largest hail ever in Michigan

Took some pictures before the storm rolled in.

Vertical wind shear describes the difference in magnitude and direction of wind flow between different altitude levels of the troposphere. You can think of wind flow in each altitude layer as its own individual vector, and the greater the difference when you subtract these vectors, the higher the wind shear.

Tropical cyclones require low vertical wind shear to strengthen. This is because the circulation/vortex of a tropical cyclone is vertically "deep", aka tall. It extends from the surface to near the tropopause in mature and powerful major hurricanes. The stronger the tropical cyclone, the taller its circulation is. Weaker tropical systems such as depressions or tropical waves exhibit shallower circulations.

A tropical cyclone requires its vortex to be vertically aligned and upright in order for the processes which fuel it to remain efficient and active. The release of latent heat, from thunderstorm activity (convection), is what fuels the warm-core of a tropical cyclone. This occurs due to the vertical transfer of heat, but when wind shear is present, the circulation of a tropical cyclone becomes tilted with height. This decreases the efficiency of this process, leading to a halting of intensification or weakening of the tropical cyclone.

When vertical wind shear becomes even stronger, this process is halted entirely. The circulation becomes so tilted that the low-level circulation and mid-to-upper-level circulation become increasingly displaced. If wind shear becomes strong enough, these two separate portions of the circulation can become totally separated. This is called "decoupling" and is the tropical cyclone equivalent of decapitation. Recovery would take many days and still would happen only IF conditions become favorable again, because the tropical cyclone would have to vertically rebuild its circulation almost from scratch.

Here is a gif which best shows this process unfolding. This is tropical storm Chris of 2006. 2006 was also an El Nino season, with correspondingly high vertical wind shear across the Tropics.

https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/e/e4/Chrissplitloop.gif?utm_source=commons.wikimedia.org&utm_campaign=index&utm_content=original

In this gif, the surface circulation of the storm is tracking at about 300 degrees, or WNW. However, wind flow above the surface circulation is strongly out of the north. These northerlies push on the mid-level circulation and attendant vertically tall thunderstorm activity, displacing it towards the south. The shear is sufficiently strong to decouple the system, and you can see Chris continue WNW as all of its thunderstorm activity is violently stripped away.

From NHC advisory #11 on Chris:

CHRIS IS BECOMING DISORGANIZED IN A HURRY. SATELLITE IMAGES INDICATE THAT THE LOW-LEVEL CENTER HAS BECOME DETACHED FROM THE THUNDERSTORM ACTIVITY DUE TO NORTHWESTERLY SHEAR...AND THIS WAS CONFIRMED BY FIXES FROM AN AIR FORCE RECONNAISSANCE PLANE. THE MINIMUM PRESSURE HAS RISEN TO 1010 MB AND THE MAXIMUM FLIGHT LEVEL WIND REPORTED SO FAR IS ONLY 38 KNOTS.

Advisory #12:

THE COMBINATION OF DRY LOW- TO MID-LEVEL AIR AND SHEAR...ASSOCIATED WITH AN UPPER-LEVEL CYCLONE THAT DROPPED SOUTHWARD INTO CHRIS...HAS TAKEN ITS TOLL ON THE TROPICAL CYCLONE. CHRIS IS DEVOID OF DEEP CONVECTION WITHIN ABOUT 75 N MI RADIUS OF THE CENTER.

El Nino increases vertical wind shear over the Atlantic tropics. This is due to increased upper-level westerly flow across the Caribbean sea and western to central tropical Atlantic due to outflow from Eastern Pacific hurricanes as well as a shift in the Walker Circulation itself. Additionally, lower surface pressures in the Eastern Pacific sharpens a pressure gradient with higher pressures in the Atlantic, which strengthens the low-level easterly trade wind flow. Trade winds are naturally strong in the Caribbean Sea due to the geography of the Greater Antilles acting as a "funnel", which forces trade winds to "diverge", or accelerate. Additionally, the proximity of the Caribbean Sea means that the anomalously strong upper-level westerlies are particularly significant. Collectively, this results in the Caribbean experiencing the strongest anomalously hostile conditions yielded by the presence of El Nino, more so than anywhere else in the Atlantic basin. This is why the Caribbean Sea has been devoid of all activity this year.

In fact, vertical wind shear has been at all time highs in the Atlantic.

https://i.imgur.com/m2NH3VK.jpeg

Area-averaged vertical shear is far stronger than even the last super El Nino of 2015-16. 2026 is well ahead of second place (1979). This is the primary reason why this season is so dead, and it's not going to meaningfully change since El Nino is so strong and continues to only intensify further.

https://i.imgur.com/F2wbA6a.png

Current vertical wind shear values are comparable to values observed in June during above-average hurricane seasons. That's pretty remarkable considering we are right at the peak of the season, now. We are experiencing near record-low hurricane activity this season, and it looks to be the least active Atlantic hurricane season in many decades, all thanks to the ongoing strong to super El Nino.

Sorry for the yap, I just felt like writing something today.

Is there a term for very fine drizzle?

I just stepped outside and was surprised to find that it was raining. I could actually hear it on the leaves but the ground looked dry and I couldn’t see anything in the air. But the air was full of a fine fine drizzle.

Anyone know how to show mesoscale precipitation discussions in the WeatherFront app? Using the Android version.

For some reason I'm only able to see the convective discussions. Can't seem to find the precip ones in the settings anywhere so was wondering if they're just not in there.

Thank you!

Assume I know what CAPE is and am familiar with CAPE in the context of NA. Why do we see this presentation in the med, Middle East, and otherwise? Is it an instrument or model artifact or a real signal?

Thank you to any helpful answers! I appreciate the assistance.

Flying close to a mountain range and at about 20 000ft. I didn’t know lenticular clouds could form that high but we had horrendous turbulence in the lower levels.