How does vertical wind shear influence updraft characteristics and hydrometeor distributions in supercell thunderstorms?

Shear also impacts the size of supercell updrafts, with stronger shear leading to wider, less dilute, and stronger updrafts with likely greater hydrometeor production. To more clearly define fi ne the role of shear across different vertical layers on hydrometeor concentrations and displacements relative to supercell updrafts, a suite of idealized numerical model simulations of supercells was conducted.

Shear magnitudes were systematically varied across the 0-1, 1-6, and 6-12 km AGL layers, while the thermodynamic environment was held fi xed. Simulations show that as shear magnitude increases, especially from 1 to 6 km, updrafts become wider and less dilute with an increase in hydrometeor loading, along with an increase in the low-level precipitation area/rate and total precipitation accumulation. Even with greater updraft hydrometeor loading amid stronger shear, updrafts are more intense in stronger shear simulations due to larger thermal buoyancy owing to wider, less dilute updraft cores.