Water vapor and ice mass transported into the anvils of CCOPE thunderstorms: comparison with storm influx and rainout

Vapor and ice mass fluxes into the anvil time-averaged for the study periods are about equal. Ratios of the time-averaged sums of these fluxes (A) to aircraft-derived cloud base influx range from 18% to >100%. Estimated accuracies are ±30 to 40%. Anvil fluxes exceed rainout at cloud base level as derived from radar reflectivity data by Fankhauser for half the storms. It is shown that influx values alone are not reliable predictors of total storm condensation rates. The water mass storage term is evaluated and is found to be unimportant in relation to influx for all but one storm studied. Both A/influx and A/rainout are highly correlated with the vertical shear of the horizontal winds. -from Authors