The Field Book/Vol. VI
The Events
Storms and hazards as machines. Each plate maps onto the alerts the National Weather Service issues.
Convective
- FB-EVT-001ThunderstormA thunderstorm is a cumulonimbus that makes lightning. Moist air rises in a column the height of the troposphere, freezes, falls as rain and hail, and separates enough charge to close a circuit through the air. One cell lives about half an hour to an hour.
- FB-EVT-007SupercellA supercell is a thunderstorm with a deep, persistent, rotating updraft: the mesocyclone. The rotation is what organizes it, and lets it live for hours. It makes most of the largest hail and most of the strongest tornadoes, but most supercells never make a tornado at all.
Water, flood, coast and marine
- FB-EVT-100Flash floodA flash flood is water that rises fast: within six hours of the rain, the dam failure or the ice jam that causes it, and in a steep basin within minutes. It happens where water is gathered faster than the ground and the channel can carry it away, and most of the people it kills are in vehicles.
- FB-EVT-105Coastal floodA coastal flood is the sea standing higher than the land it borders. The tide sets the level, a storm adds to it by pressing the water in with its wind and lifting it with its low pressure, and waves ride on top. The flood comes at high tide.