Developmental environment and early evolution of the 8 May 2009 "Super Derecho"

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Slide 39 of 46

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Notes: Combination of these multiple factors suggests that intense upward mass fluxes were strongly favored in this event - the energy supply was high, the path to release it was sustained, with high relative humidity over deep layers favoring minimal dilution of updrafts by entrainment. In this event, an extraordinary amount of hydrometeors was available to drive downdrafts. In particular, strong, low-lvl mass flux of moist, very buoyant air yielded abundant storm development in a relatively confined region over sern KS between 10 and 11Z, and subsequent production of precipitation-enhanced outflow. Even though the DCAPE not exceptionally large, it seems likely that the enormous updraft mass flux led to high concentrations of hydrometeors that supported large downdraft mass fluxes. The melting of abundant frozen hydrometeors aloft (or large water loading) could have disproportionately driven the strong downdraft mass fluxes.