[1] The linearization leading to (3) ends up equating buoyancy with conditional instability, which is not quite correct. See Hess's textbook and Schultz et al. (2001) for a discussion of the approximations used to linearize the equation this way.
[2] When discussing CAPE in specific cases, it is critical to know which parcel is being lifted, as discussed by Doswell and Rasmussen (1994). For my purposes in this chapter, I am not specifying which parcel is being used, as this discussion is general.
[3] In some instances, the instability may be driven or maintained by sensible heat loss at upper levels, owing to radiative processes, rather than heat gain at lower levels. This is not likely to be at work in most forms of severe convection.
[4] Numerous observations of the storm's summit as depicted by radar are available, but this is not necessarily equivalent to its cloud top.
[5] If 100 percent of that condensing water were to fall out as precipitation over a circle 5 km in radius, it would represent a rainfall rate of about 250 mm hr-1 (roughly 10 in hr-1). Precipitation efficiencies are typically much less than 100 percent, of course.
[6] It is far from obvious just how such a study might be done, since it is not clear just how a "thunderstorm" is defined. How many thunderstorms does a convective line or a convective complex contain at a given instant?
[7] Meteorological significance is tied to the intensity of the event, rather than the effect of an event on humans, which is contingent on the meteorological event's interaction with human habitation and use of a location.
[8] By "front," I am including boundaries that may or may not have substantial baroclinity. Thus, for purposes of this discussion, I am specifically including drylines, and other forms of non-frontal boundaries. According to Sanders and Doswell (1994), many such boundaries are not true fronts, but they have in common with fronts that some atmospheric variable has strong variability in the direction normal to the boundary.
[9] This ignores the issue of the ongoing controversial attempts to prevent hail, or reduce its size, by seeding (Foote and Frank 1979).