Wikipedia:Peer review/Supercell/archive1

Supercell edit

This is a small step in my goal of improving the quality of the Meteorology category. This request for peer review is made in the hope of it someday becoming a Feature article.--demonburrito 04:35, 11 August 2005 (UTC)[reply]

Demonburrito - There are a lot of things I like about this article - the images are helpful (except for the third image inthe article - it is pretty low quality), and there's a lot of information. The problem is that as a layman to meteorology, I have a very hard time following the article. You've lost me by the third paragraph:

Supercells are usually found isolated from other thunderstorms in the warm air in front of a squall line, although they can sometimes be embedded in a squall line. They can last hours—they are quasi-steady-state storms. They usually to track to the right of the mean wind—they are said to be right movers.

You should give at least some explanation about what a squall line is, since it seems to be an important concept. Curious readers can follow the link. Likewise, I don't know what "quasi-steady-state storm," or "mean wind" mean, nor do I understand the significance of a storm tracking to "the right of the mean wind." Why is that important? The rest of the article throws curveballs at the reader similar to this paragraph. I'm sure it makes perfect sense to you, but it requires a great deal of the reader to decipher this if they know little about meteorology.
I would try to explain every term you put into the article, and draw readers in with a narrative (like describing the process of a supercell developing, or the damage caused by a famous supercell storm), then launch into the technical stuff. I'm glad that someone is doing meteorology on WP - basically every non-mathematical science needs a lot of help at the moment, and there are a lot of misconceptions out there about the weather. Mr.Bip 05:39, 11 August 2005 (UTC)[reply]
Thank you so much for your effort. All three of those examples are actually part of the legacy of the article... I guess I left them hanging around as some kind of respect. But as it's been a few days with no objection, I suppose I can get rid of the vestiges of the original. I will keep in mind your advice about making the evolution of a supercell into a lay-readable narrative. It seems like a good idea.--demonburrito 05:45, 11 August 2005 (UTC)[reply]