A hot tower is a tropical cumulonimbus cloud that penetrates the tropopause, i.e. it reaches out of the lowest layer of the atmosphere, the troposphere, into the stratosphere. In the tropics, the tropopause typically lies at least 15 kilometres (9.3 mi) above sea level. These towers are called "hot" because they rise high due to the large amount of latent heat released as water vapor condenses into liquid and freezes into ice. The presence of hot towers with a tropical cyclone's eyewall can indicate strengthening is more likely during the next six hours.
Read more about Hot Tower: Origin of Term, Effects On Tropical Cyclones
Famous quotes containing the words hot and/or tower:
“Too often when you thought you’d be showered with confetti
What they flung at you was a plate of hot spaghetti
You’ve put your fancy clothes and flashy gems in hock
Yet you pause before your father’s door afraid to knock”
—John Ashbery (b. 1927)
“Shall I still be love’s house on the widdershin earth,
Woe to the windy masons at my shelter?
Love’s house, they answer, and the tower death
Lie all unknowing of the grave sin-eater.”
—Dylan Thomas (1914–1953)