As explained before super cells are responsible for tornadoes and hail. But how does a super cell look? What is exactly happening in a super cell? We will answer these questions and more in this sub-division.

Appearance
When your see a cloud from a distance and you're not sure if this is a super cell it would be nice to know something about the appearance of a super cell. Firstly they have a cauliflower hard look. This is because of the air rising into the storm with speeds up to 110 kilometres per hour. The cloud get it's hard look from the humidity in the cloud. When the air rises it will cool down, causing the present humidity to condense into tiny droplets. Because the air is rising so quickly, these droplets don't freeze even when the temperature is far below zero Celcius. Al these tiny droplets reflect a lot of light together and give the cloud a solid and hard look. Whe the cloud has a softer look it means that the air inside isn't rising anymore, causing the many tiny water droplets to turn into ice crystals. These ice crystals are much larger than water droplets, this way there are less ice crystals than water droplets with the same amount of water. These new born ice crystals reflect less light, giving the cloud a softer look. Secondly, because the rising air is rotating, some parts of the cloud can get a corkscrew like external. This is not always visible because other clouds can hide the corkscrew like external, so don't take any conclusions yet when there isn't such an appearance. Thirdly, on top of the column of rising air is a dome, this is also called an overshooting top. In weaker storms these domes come and go, but when the dome lasts for at least 20 minutes you can be quite sure that you're looking at a super cell.

Mesocyclone
The rotating and rising column of air better known as a mesocyclone is the centre of a super cell. A mesocyclone gets its rotation from strong winds coming from different directions at different attitudes high above the ground. When the combination of wind speeds and changing directions is right the air will rotate, causing a mesocyclone to form. A mesocyclone separates an ordinary thunderstorm form a super cell.

Energy
Just like a thunderstorm, a super cell needs warm moist air in the lower atmosphere, much colder air several flours up and something to give the air near the ground a reason to rise. This is often heated air. And here comes the difference between a super cell and a ordinary thunderstorm. The rising air in a super cell rises much quicker, causing the humidity to condense into cloud droplets or ice crystals. When this happens, heat is released which adds to the storm's power.

Seeing a super cell
When you want to see a super cell, you should try to hop in an airplane during the spring and fly a bit around in tornado alley (see also subdivision Tornado Alley). The pilot will stay far away from any super cells, because they are very dangerous for him. An airplane needs stable air and you won't find much stable air around super cells. Jets usually fly at 9 or 12 kilometers. The top of a super cell can be on 15 to 18 kilometers. From your seat in an airplane you can't see the top of a super cell, but you can see super cells rising above other clouds.