Mark Hoover, CDC/NIOSH. Mark D. Hoover is a senior research scientist in the Division of Respiratory Disease Studies at the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health (NIOSH), in Morgantown, West Virginia.
This attracts the air from the valley, creating a breeze that blows from the valley floor up towards the top of the mountain. Often birds known as raptors, such as eagles, hawks, condors and vultures, float on these breezes to preserve their energy. This wind pattern is known as a valley breeze.
This lifting mechanism can be a cold front, winds from another nearby thunderstorm, or even a cooler breeze off the nearby sea, known as a sea breeze boundary. The sea breeze is the most common way thunderstorms get their start during the summer months in Florida. The lifting mechanism acts much like a large plow or shovel that forces the air upwards. Once the lift gets the air to move upwards, then the instability in the atmosphere accelerates the air upwards.