storm cell

American  

noun

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

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storm cell Scientific  

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.

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Example Sentences

The flash and bang was an unexpected “one-hit wonder” that came from a small storm cell, meteorologist Tyler Kranz said.

From Seattle Times • Sep. 11, 2022

By 4:30 p.m., the storm cell had rolled into the L.A.

From Los Angeles Times • Oct. 4, 2021

The damaging storm cell erupted in the zone of collision between these two boundaries, which behaved like very localized cold fronts.

From Washington Post • Jul. 27, 2021

Dierks Bentley shared a video of the storm cell as well as photos of the destruction on Instagram, also announcing that his drummer's home was lost.

From Fox News • Mar. 3, 2020

However, there was more of a sense of urgency to the proceedings than usual with an approaching storm cell that had caused final-round tee times to be moved up by more than five hours.

From Golf Digest • Apr. 22, 2019