<p>Take a look at this picture.<a href="https://i.sstatic.net/nwCvh.png" rel="nofollow noreferrer"><img src="https://i.sstatic.net/nwCvh.png" alt="Mesocyclone beginning" /></a></p>
<p>Moist updrafts interact with highly-sheared upper-level winds, which sets up a horizontal vortex. But <em>why?</em> What causes the air to be forced downward and to the right, then continue rising (also to the right)?</p>

CC BY-SA 4.0
2020-10-07T22:07:16.890Z
https://sites.psu.edu/pmarkowski/how-tornadoes-form/ seems to offer a nicer explanation for why it happens... basically if I get it still (it has been a long time since I've looked at such subjects!), [in the Northern Hemisphere] having south winds below and the west winds aloft torques the air in between kind of like how an American football would spin by applying two different horizontal directions of motion with your hands at the top and bottom?
JeopardyTempest
<meteorology><severe-weather><mesoscale-meteorology>
In a mesocyclone, why does wind shear create a horizontal axis of spinning air?
spillthrill
# In a mesocyclone, why does wind shear create a horizontal axis of spinning air?

(Asked by: username_0 on 2020-09-20)

Take a look at this picture.[![Mesocyclone beginning](https://i.sstatic.net/nwCvh.png)](https://i.sstatic.net/nwCvh.png)

Moist updrafts interact with highly-sheared upper-level winds, which sets up a horizontal vortex. But *why?* What causes the air to be forced downward and to the right, then continue rising (also to the right)?

**Tags:** meteorology, severe-weather, mesoscale-meteorology

> **Comments:**
> **username_1**: https://sites.psu.edu/pmarkowski/how-tornadoes-form/ seems to offer a nicer explanation for why it happens... basically if I get it still (it has been a long time since I've looked at such subjects!), [in the Northern Hemisphere] having south winds below and the west winds aloft torques the air in between kind of like how an American football would spin by applying two different horizontal directions of motion with your hands at the top and bottom?  

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## 0 answers

