A strong wake low appears to have been detected by a number of IEM sites early afternoon on Wednesday. Eventhough the storms were to south of this feature, brief gusty winds were experienced. This phenemona was caused by rapid evaporation of cloud water from a decaying area of precipitation to the north and northwest of the squall line in southcentral Iowa. The evaporatively cooled air rushes to the ground and causes the large horizonal differences in pressure and thus wind! The plot shown indicates the rapid swing in pressure and the other plots show the increase in wind speed. Great stuff!

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Tags:   wakelow