The Hodograph

Representative hodograph and sounding from the JAAWIN Website

The ability to anticipate possible storm structures is critical in managing your activities before and during a convective event. Having the right set of expectations for a given storm environment will make you a more efficient and accurate forecaster. The hodograph depicts the environmental wind shear, which profoundly influences storm evolution. Thus, a representative hodograph combined with a representative buoyancy profile can greatly enhance forecast skill. This figure shows an AFWA MM5 model sounding, along with the associated hodograph, downloaded from the Joint Army-Air Force Weather Information Network (JAAWIN) Website. Similar sounding/hodograph plots are available from many sources.

After completing this module you should understand how hodographs are constructed and how they can help you estimate the total shear, mean shear, and mean wind. To learn how shear impacts the development of convective storms, see the companion module Principles of Convection IIII: Shear and Convective Storms.