Vertical profiles of thunderstorm wind characteristics from anemometer measurements

Thunderstorm winds are transient, non-stationary, and have shown to exhibit different characteristics than atmospheric boundary layer (ABL) winds. However, insufficient field measurements have left these characteristics uncertain, as reflected by the difficulty of formulating generalized vertical profile models for thunderstorm winds comparable to those commonly used for ABL winds. This study investigates the vertical profiles of thunderstorm wind characteristics based on full-scale field measurements obtained from anemometers at multiple measurement sites. A subset of 63 thunderstorm cases with estimated temporal duration less than 600 s was analyzed. Primary focus was on the general (i.e., normalized) shape of vertical profiles, including peak wind speed, turbulence intensity, gust factor, and turbulence length scale. These thunderstorm profiles are compared with normalized ABL profile models. The results show that peak wind profiles in thunderstorm winds do not always conform to ‘nose’ or ‘uniform’ shape profiles, while the mean thunderstorm profile of normalized peak wind speed exhibits a ‘log-like’ profile up to 120 m, consistent with the typical profile shape of ABL winds. The shape of normalized thunderstorm profiles of other wind characteristics also generally resembles those of the normalized ABL profiles across different exposure categories. • Peak wind profiles of thunderstorm winds do not always conform to ‘nose’ or ‘uniform’ shape profiles. • The choice of moving average time can influence the resulting shape of peak wind profiles. • Mean thunderstorm profile of normalized peak wind speed exhibits a ‘log-like’ profile up to 120 m. • Vertical profile shape of normalized thunderstorm wind characteristics broadly follows the normalized ABL profile models across different exposure categories.