Vertical wind shear is present nearly everywhere on Earth, since winds typically move faster at higher altitudes than at the surface. It can be stronger or weaker than normal, and that’s ...

Vertical wind shear can keep tropical storms in check, particularly during El Niño years. When El Niño is gone, it’s a different story.

Wind shear is often the most critical factor controlling hurricane formation and destruction. In general, wind shear refers to any change in wind speed or direction along a straight line. In the ...

Colder waters, disruptive winds, a missing wave train and lower Coriolis force form a near-perfect storm shield, meaning ...

Basically, wind shear in relation to tropical systems is the difference between the wind speed and direction at the surface compared to that of the upper levels of the atmosphere. For example if ...

Moving over very deep, warm waters with a low wind shear, the wind speeds grew by 85 mph in just 12 hours, according to hurricane center data, and the pressure dropped by an astonishing 64 millibars.

Wind shear can make or break a tropical storm or hurricane. What is it? Simply a change in wind speed or direction, typically as you go up into the atmosphere. This is known as vertical wind shear.

Wind shear is commonly observed near microbursts and downbursts caused by thunderstorms, fronts, areas of locally higher low-level winds referred to as low level jets, near mountains, radiation ...

Q: How dangerous is wind shear when landing? — Submitted by reader John Fleming, Berlin, Md. A:Wind shear can be very dangerous to a landing airplane. Until the 1990s, it caused several accidents.

Wind shear greater than 30 mph tends to disrupt the vertical development of the storms near the “eye” so much, that dry air entrains (mixes) into the system and causes it to collapse.

Extreme wind shear diverts planes from Denver Sunday's storms only produced a dribble of rain with light winds on the ground, but they caused quite a bit of trouble higher up in the atmosphere.