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This article introduces an analytic formula for entraining convective available potential energy (ECAPE) with an entrainment rate that is determined directly from the storm environment. Extending previous formulas derived in Peters et al. (2020), entrainment is connected to the background environment via an analytic manipulation of the equations of motion that yields a direct correspondence between the storm relative flow and the updraft radius, and an inverse scaling between the updraft radius squared and entrainment rate. These concepts, combined with the assumption of adiabatic conservation of moist static energy, yield an explicit analytic equation for ECAPE that depends entirely on state variables in an atmospheric profile and a few constant parameters with values that are established in past literature. Using a simplified Bernoulli-like equation, a second formula is derived that accounts for updraft enhancement via kinetic energy extracted from the cloud's background environment. CAPE and ECAPE can be viewed as predictors of the maximum vertical velocity $w_{max}$ in an updraft. Hence, these formulas are evaluated using $w_{max}$ from past numerical modeling studies. Both of the new formulas improve predictions of $w_{max}$ substantially over undiluted CAPE, ECAPE with a prescribed entrainment rate, and the ECAPE formula from Peters et al. (2020). The formula that incorporates environmental kinetic energy contribution to the updraft correctly predicts instances of exceedance of $\sqrt{2\text{CAPE}}$ by $w_{max}$ in simulations, and provides a conceptual explanation for why such exceedance is rare among past simulations. These formulas are potentially useful in nowcasting and forecasting thunderstorms and as thunderstorm proxies in climate change studies.

The development of low-level mesocyclones in supercell thunderstorms has often been explained via the development of storm-generated streamwise vorticity along a baroclinic gradient in the forward flank of supercells. However, the ambient streamwise vorticity of the environment (often quantified via storm-relative helicity), especially near the ground, is particularly skillful at discriminating between nontornadic and tornadic supercells. This study investigates whether the origins of the inflow air into supercell low-level mesocyclones, both horizontally and vertically, can help explain the dynamical role of environmental versus storm-generated vorticity in the development of low-level mesocyclone rotation. Simulations of supercells, initialized with wind profiles common to supercell environments observed in nature, show that the air bound for the low-level mesocyclone primarily originates from the undisturbed, ambient environment, rather than from along the forward flank, and from very close to the ground, often in the lowest 200 - 400 m of the atmosphere. Given that the near-ground environmental air comprises the bulk of the inflow into low-level mesocyclones, this likely explains the forecast skill of environmental streamwise vorticity in the lowest few hundred meters of the atmosphere. The low-level mesocyclone does not appear to require much augmentation from the development of additional horizontal vorticity in the forward flank. Instead, the dominant contributor to vertical vorticity within the low-level mesocyclone is from the environmental horizontal vorticity. This study hopefully clarifies the development of low-level mesocyclones in supercells.