Improving visibility = bad?

[GaryO]

Last summer and the previous summer I had close encounters with rapidly developing thunder storms. I posted about them here at the time.

I've mentally re-lived those encounters many times. In retrospect, I realized that a lot of the "wow, where did that come from" was due to the visibility being much better than it had been a short time earlier. The TSs that threatened to box me in simply were not visible a few minutes earlier.

In the first one, when a TS formed right on top of me, the haze seemed to coagulate into little clumps above me. Those little clumps then accumulated very rapidly into a solid overcast.

Saturday morning I flew my AA1B over to Lantana for it's annual. Flight Service reported good VFR conditions. He ended the briefing with 'nothing showing, nothing expected".

The flight began in the normal summer haze. But as I neared LNA I noticed that the vis had become very good. I ducked under a narrow band of clouds and landed in good conditions. A short time later there were TSs all over that area.

So my question for more experienced pilots is:

Can unexpected dramatic improvement in visibility be used as an early warning of building TSs? Or is what I noticed just a co-incidence?

 

[jesse]

It can be, but it's not a for sure thing by any means. I have observed that the surrounding weather around many thunderstorms = VFR. Sometimes it may only be one side of the storm. The storm tends to suck up the surrounding moisture as it builds. Once it reaches the mature and then dissipating stage it is going to dump all of that back out again which can degrade the conditions.

It is a good thing really because the best way to avoid them is with your own eyes.

 

[dmccormack]

The flight began in the normal summer haze. But as I neared LNA I noticed that the vis had become very good. I ducked under a narrow band of clouds and landed in good conditions. A short time later there were TSs all over that area.

So my question for more experienced pilots is:

Can unexpected dramatic improvement in visibility be used as an early warning of building TSs? Or is what I noticed just a co-incidence?

The two elements required for thunderstorm development were apparently present -- "haze" which is moisture (suspended H2O), and lifting action, due to surface heating.

What surprises many pilots is how quickly that combination can result in Towering CU that further evolves into CB.

One flight through Towering Cumulus, and you'll start calling them "baby thunderstorms."

 

[AuntPeggy]

Not a weather expert, but have noticed lots of times that wind tears clouds and haze to pieces and whisks them away.