Ordinary-cell convective storms - Severe Convective Storms and Tornadoes: Observations and Dynamics - page 110

Figure 3.14. Vertical velocity measurements made in a hailstorm in southeastern Montana by
the T-28 instrumented aircraft, on August 2, 1981, during CCOPE (Cooperative Convective
Precipitation Experiment). Updraft ''D'' was in excess of 50m s 1 (from Musil et al., 1991).

Figure 3.15. Measurements of vertical velocity, based on the ascent rate of a radiosonde (solid
line), inside a tornadic supercell in the Texas Panhandle on May 7, 1986 and a comparison with
estimated vertical velocity based on parcel theory (dashed line) (from Bluestein et al., 1988).
It is probably a coincidence that parcel theory agrees so well with the measurements
because vertical perturbation pressure gradients and precipitation loading were not taken into
account.