On the nature of the summit areas of severe storms in Oklahoma

Photographic and radiometric records of the summit areas of severe storms in Oklahoma obtained from a U‐2 aircraft flying at an altitude of 65,000 ft (20 Km) are combined with relevant synoptic data to make some tentative deductions on the nature of the flow and temperature fields in the outflow regions of the small fraction of giant storm cells which appear to have attained some form of quasi‐steady state. The summit area of a giant cell sometimes appears to consist of a rather smooth ‘gasometer‐shaped’ dome 5–8 nautical miles (10–15 Km) in diameter and reaching up to 20,000 ft (6 Km) above its environmental tropopause. It is suggested this dome consists mainly of air which has risen nearly adiabatically from the surface layers (after Ludlam 1963) contained within a rather thin shell of very stable air in which there is mixing between updraught air and environmental (stratospheric) air. A general description of the distribution and heights of storm tops along a developed squall‐line is also given.