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WhoWhatWhereWhenHowY t1_j72gmqw wrote

This is really interesting. I had never heard of a tropopause fold before. I tried a brief search to figure out the mechanisms that cause it but is it just a strong high pressure system?

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TheCloudBoy OP t1_j72ism2 wrote

Hey I'm glad meteorologists can teach people new things! So not quite, a tropopause fold/depression occurs just behind a upper-level jet stream associated with a strong cyclone, in this case a piece of the tropospheric Polar Vortex that's been pinched off.

The reason why Bernoulli acceleration occurs at the fold is a difference in density: the bottom of the stratosphere directly above the tropopause gets increasingly warmer, drier, and therefore more stable than the airmass below it. So, that rapidly increasing stability creates the "flow squeeze" effect between the fold and the White Mountains, thus accelerating the winds.

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WhoWhatWhereWhenHowY t1_j72l009 wrote

That is very interesting. I have to say one thing that has always blown my mind with meteorology is how much air doesn't like to mix and can have huge velocity gradients that I wouldn't expect from fluids. How a tornado holds itself together is just magic to me.

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Belowmylevel t1_j75kfox wrote

Do you have a visual aid that helps explain this by chance?

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