Cyclone Center Talk

Eye storm or not?

  • tpatch by tpatch

    I classified this as an eye storm with the big grey eye in the centre of the pink cloud. I'm not sure what to do when you get these "donut" storms with 2 clusters of colder clouds. Suggestions?
    Teresa

    Posted

  • cch001 by cch001 scientist

    Teresa, thanks for the question. Some things to look for when you are unsure if you are seeing an eye:

    • Does the shape of the eye at least resemble a circle or ellipse?
    • Is the eye clearly warmer than the surrounding ring of clouds?
    • Does the entire storm appear to have a mature structure (i.e. are there spiral patterns in the clouds surrounding the suspected eye)?

    If you can answer yes to all of these then you probably have an eye storm. Sometimes when you are looking at a single image it is hard to tell for sure. After you classify the image you can look at all of the images from the storm and find the times surrounding this particular one. It can help you to determine if you choose the "right" answer.

    In this particular image I would call it an #eye-storm. It satisfies the 3 questions. The 2 different clusters of colder clouds are just rotating around the middle - sometimes these storms will just have mostly pinkish clouds surrounding the center.

    -Chris

    Posted