The Water and Energy Budgets of the Thunderstorm and Their Relation to Thunderstorm Development

A quantitative estimate, based upon data from the Thunderstorm Project, is made of the various water sources and sinks and the energy sources and sinks of an average thunderstorm cell. It is found that a large fraction of the water carried into the storm in vapor form is used to maintain the cold downdraft inside the storm, and that the energy restratification accompanying this downdraft is a major source of energy to the storm. From the estimates of the water and energy budgets, the following hypothesis is tested by means of radar measurements: the net energy available (energy sources minus energy sinks) is related to the amount of development of convective rainstorms.