Outflow Boundaries | Weather

Hey everyone! I know its been a while since I last posted. I just got back from the NOAA Weather Camp in Washington, DC, where I participated in two intense weeks of weather boot camp.

Before I left, I took a picture of a shelf cloud. This shelf cloud was associated with an outflow boundary.

An outflow boundary (also known as a gust front) is a region of rain-cooled air that separates a thunderstorm from the surrounding air. This boundary of air is a lot like a cold front.

Due to interactions in the atmosphere, outflow can cause thunderstorms to form, but it can also hinder them. It’s a lot like the way tornadoes need wind shear to be able to spin, but hurricanes don’t.  Some things could go just right, and you would see a major thunderstorm. Other times, it may not produce anything.

Outflow can also produce strong winds, and carry things in the air, as shown by the recent haboob in Phoenix. Haboob is the Arabic word for dust storm. Dust storms will occasionally occur in the Southwest, and most of the time, they are caused by outflow boundaries.