TheProfessor wrote:1900hurricane wrote:TheProfessor wrote:
That's more than enough instability when combined with that amount of shear. High shear low instability(1500 J/kg isn't that low in this scenario though) can sometimes fly under the radar. That would be a pretty scary sounding if that were to occur and the main thing to look out for would be if there's any VBV in the lower 3 km.
Oh for sure. I was mainly concerned about low level instability. 0-3 km CAPE in this particular sounding is 45 J/kg, which is also sufficient, although big days typically have more. Most other locations have less though, owing to slightly mediocre low level lapse rates.
Yeah, though I find 3CAPE doesn't typically make or break events (once you reach a certain range) but instead seems to separate the moderate outbreaks from the historical ones. However that sounding does actually show VBV in the lower 3 km which can definitely break an event. It will be interesting to see what the NAM show when it gets inside it's wheelhouse of about 48 hours or so.
I'm not seeing much backing in that particular sounding. In fact, that hodograph is what really jumped out at me. It looks like a pretty classic staff and flag with good storm relative winds through the entire profile. Now, further south there is certainly some backing occurring near 3 km up. The sounding below is at the same time as my previous one, but further south near College Station shows this pretty well with a more 'M' shaped hodo and very weak storm relative winds near 3 km up (and no 3 km CAPE).

Another potential setup issue I could see involves shear vectors wrt the boundary. The angle between the two isn't particularly large (although decent in N Texas), and with the amount of forcing present, quick upscale growth is possible.

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