storm cell

noun

1. an air mass formed by powerful updrafts and downdrafts moving in convective loops, the smallest unit of a storm system.

storm cell

1. An air mass that contains up and down drafts in convective loops, moves and reacts as a single entity, and functions as the smallest unit of a storm-producing system.

Example Sentences

The resulting shear will help intensify storm cells and organize them into longer-lived complexes.

From Washington Post

Should severe storm cells develop, however, locations impacted will experience a torrential downpour and intense lightning.

From Washington Post

The wind shear acts to tilt the updraft away from the downdraft in storm cells, so that the two do not interfere, increasing storm vigor.

From Washington Post

This can set up repeated passage of storm cells over the same locations, like a train, allowing rainwater to rapidly accumulate.

From Washington Post

If it knows that a storm cell in a geographic area usually grows or moves in a certain direction, it can find a new path before that storm shows up on weather maps.

From Time

A summer storm cell breaks, purplish and powerful, over the North Park Baptist Church on the north side of Orlando.

From The Daily Beast