re: #162 ProGunLiberal

I wonder how much strength the Wichita cell will have when it gets toward Kansas City.

Generally speaking, a cell can spawn a very many tornadoes over its lifetime, if it is riding the line between the drier, cooler air mass and a warmer, moister air mass. “Cells” are continually morphing, some lasting longer than others.

What one can see on the current radar image, and I’ve seen this on nearly every time I’ve checked a regional radar image, is that individual cells gradually lose their independence and become part of a line of storms. I forget what the technical term is for this line, but the net result is that the cooling in the air around the condensation becomes a large outflow of cold air, and that will eventually flow as a large mass, and the edge of this large mass look like a large bow echo on the radar. However, these bring rain and hail, but not usually tornadoes.

As the air cools overnight (via IR emitting into space) there will be less convection, less chance of tornadoes, until the morning when the sun starts to heat the ground again. Sunday the action if there is any will be in Wisconsin.