"Peter R." wrote in news:1116341209.145697.282000
@z14g2000cwz.googlegroups.com:

First, a rather basic question: Why is it that all of the moisture
that appears in a composite reflectivity map is not all falling? Is
this due to the strength of the updrafts within the cell? It seems to
me that moisture that appears that heavy on radar would be heavy enough
to all fall out of the cloud.

The updrafts can be very intense. How do you think baseball-sized hail
occurs? Water drops get lifted so high they freeze, then eventuall fall,
only be lifted again after picking up more water, and the process repeats
until the ice ball gets large enough to finally fall through the updrafts
or else (more likely) gets thrown completely out of the updrafts
horizonally, and falls. If thunderstorm updrafts can lift huge chunks of
ice, they can certainly hold up water drops, and even airplanes can be
lifted uncontrollably.

--
Regards,

Stan

"They that can give up essential liberty to obtain a little temporary
safety deserve neither liberty nor safety." B. Franklin