UBC  ATSC 201 - Meteorology of Storms

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Week 5  2 - 8 Oct 2023
Monday (D1)Finish Homework from previous week.
Be sure your name, student number, and HW# are at top of every page.
Deadline:  Turn in your HW electronically by the start of class, 2 pm Monday (or 2 pm Wednesday if Monday was a holiday).
Morning
Midday
2 PM Class - Holiday this year. Instead the tornado videos are moved to a special class day: Thursday 12 Oct at 2 pm:
  1. Turn in HW (if not a holiday).
  2. Discussion & interaction on topics from last week (bring your clicker).
  3. Keynote slides of tornado characteristics, and safety recommendations.
  4. Videos of tornadoes and mesocyclones:  Show YouTube videos Day 2-01 and Day 3 (all)
Topic: Tornadoes
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Learning Goals
At the end of this section, you should be able to:
  1. Visually recognize and identify tornadoes and associated wall clouds.
  2. Visually determine the life-cycle stage of a tornado and anticipate its subsequent evolution.
  3. Classify the different types of tornadoes.
  4. Propose how to safely chase and photograph tornadoes.
  5. Classify tornado strength using the Enhanced-Fujita scale.

EveningReadings:
  • S. Ch15. p577 - 589.  Also section 15.4.9 .
Warm-up Questions:
Do quiz W05 D2 online on Canvas.
 Topic: Tornadoes & Helicity
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Learning Goals
At the end of this section, you should be able to:
  1. Distinguish between the rotational and translational velocities of a tornado, and explain the forces that drive these motions.
  2. Explain how thunderstorms get rotation, and describe the rotation is enhanced.
  3. Apply the concepts of helicity and storm-relative helicity to explain severe storm evolution.
  4. Determine helicity from a hodograph.
  5. Relate swirl ratio to the existence and characteristics of multiple-vortex tornadoes.
Tuesday (D2)
Morning
Midday
Evening
10 PMDeadline to finish warm-up Qs.
Wed. (D3).
Morning
Midday
2 PMClass:
  1. Discussion & interaction on topics from readings (bring your clicker).
  2. Demo on using a hodograph to describe mesocyclone winds.

EveningReadings:
  •    S.Ch15. Section 15.3, (but skip section 15.3.4 and subsection 15.3.6.1 ).
Warm-up Questions:
Do quiz W05 D4 online on Canvas.
Topic: Lightning & Thunder - Part 1
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Learning Goals
At the end of this section, you should be able to:
  1. Contrast theories for how thunderstorms  become electrified.
  2. Describe the evolution of a lightning stroke.
  3. List the different types of lightning, and judge which are most hazardous.
  4. Explain how lightning creates thunder.
  5. Criticize the hypothesis that you can't hear thunder beyond a certain distance.
Thurs. (D4)
Morning
Midday
Evening
10 PMDeadline to finish warm-up Qs.
Friday (D5).
Morning
Midday
2 PMClass:
  1. Discussion & interaction on topics from readings (bring your clicker).

Evening
End-of-Week Numerical Homework Exercises.  
(Due at start of next class.)
Homework 5:
S.Ch11 (do all on spreadsheet): A14e, A17e, A18e, A19e.(You already did these in HW4.)
S.Ch15 (do all on a spreadsheet): A15e, A16e, A25e, A27e, A29e, A33e, A36e.
Learning Goals
At the end of this section, you should be able to:
  1. Apply topics covered earlier this week to compute number answers & infer their significance.  

Saturday(D6)
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Sunday (D7)
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Notes: The textbook for this course is Stull, 2018: "Practical Meteorology: An Algebra-based Survey of Atmospheric Science", available for free online, at  https://www.eoas.ubc.ca/books/Practical_Meteorology/ .

The reading and homework assignments use the following abbreviations to indicates various parts of this textbook:

Legend:
Ch = chapter.
A = "Apply" exercises.
p = page number.
S = Stull, 2018:  "Practical Meteorology" book (online).
s = "Synthesize" exercises.
E = "Evaluate & Analyze" exercises.