What about those THUNDER BOOMERS!
This newsletter is the last in the series of weather for now, I had been asked to write this series to encapsulate the weather (WX) a GA pilot needs to know about and what to watch for in our skies.
There is really only one type of Thunder Storm (TRW), but they come in different packages, according to the meteorologist’s there are Air Mass and Frontal TRW’s. If you get caught in one it doesn’t make any difference what the type it is, you are just thinking (or should be) I hope get out of this, quickly! My Will-ism here is “TRW’s are Never as bad as you think they are going to be-They are WORSE! Avoid at all costs!
Let’s look at these monsters!
A TRW is classified as a Cumulonimbus cloud (CB) the Cumulo means it has accumulated a large mass of clouds (moisture) and they reach great heights, up to 40,000ft or higher. The Nimbus is Greek for Rain, they are known for tremendous up-drafts and down-drafts, and very heavy rain and not to just mention that; but they also have electricity in them, known as lightening. The lightening is caused by those up/down drafts, creating friction and electricity. Getting a lightning strike is the least of your worries, the strike usually does not do much damage to large aircraft (A/C), but in a small, I don’t know, I never got near one in smaller A/C.
Let’s look at the Genesis and Maturation process:
Each cell starts off with something to cause air to rise or (up-lift), mountains, frontal activity, instability in the atmosphere, etc. The cells can grow very quickly and soon the up and down drafts carry rain drops aloft into freezing levels. As the water droplets climb they get larger until they are too heavy to keep going up, so they come down with a vengeance and melt into (heavy rain). Some of the water droplets are frozen and have so much force that they are thrown out of the top of the TRW, get caught up in the winds aloft and come down in the clear air as ice, just under the Anvil, known as Hail. Hail can often not detected by WX radar. If you get into this, make a 90 or 180 degree turn, quickly! All this excitement is the Mature Stage, and usually does not last very long.
The cell then starts to dissipate and falls apart, that one is done. But, all that moisture, in the air is not done and another cell will build and the process starts all over again. TRW’s are said to form in lines and clusters, so if you are near one there is probably another cell close by.
Rain Showers (RW) also can pack a punch, so watch out for this weather phenomenon also. The airlines found out some time ago about the ferociousness of TRW’s and RW’s, and painfully with several terrible crashes, studied and experiment on how to avoid Wind Shear (WS). Commercial flight operations do not mess with this weather; however every check ride we take in a simulator has WS training and if we pilots cannot avoid a WS on the line, then we are taught how to escape WS. The training has worked and made flying in airliners much safer!
Until next time,
Captain Will Rondeau