TORNADOES

 Tornado: A visibly rotating column of air extending between a

cloud base and the surface of the earth.
 topics
1. Some examples
2. Climatology: when and where
3. tornadic storm environment
4. tornado formation
5. tornado evolution
6. tornado forecasting
7. Fujita scale
Wall cloud: tornado precursor
Note rotation in the wall cloud!
Not all wall clouds are associated with supercells …
Tornadogenesis!
Photo by Bill McCaul
Dust devil or mini tornado in Laramie

24 June 2003
Another one near Centennial
Waterspout from supercell storm, off Sydney
Australia, 26 Jan 2002
(photos courtesy Joe Golden)
 F1 tornado in
Miami, Sept ‘97
Miami tornado: radar reflectivity
Miami tornado CAPE = 2154 J/kg, lots of wind shear
 High resolution reflectivity image of an
occluded tornado

forward
flanking line
View of a tornado as seen from the Doppler on
Wheels (DOW) - image is about 1X1 miles

NE

Vertical transect from SW to NE

SW
clear slot
2. Tornado climatology: where??
Historical tornado tracks
 Tornado Alley

 Area of the United States where tornadoes occur most frequently

July Tornado climatology:
June when??
May

April
May
 3. Tornado environment
Synoptic situation

Conditions necessary for tornadic thunderstorm development:

1. Highly unstable troposphere
2. Strong wind shear (wind increases and veers with height)
 Tornado environment
 ambient conditions
– high instability (CAPE >1000 J/kg)
– high wind shear (>30 kts from 0 to 20,000ft)
 storm types
– supercell storms (almost all F3-F5 events)
– squall lines and multicell
– occasionally, shallow, mostly forced convection along cold fronts
can produce an F0-F1 tornado
Tornadic storm environment: an example
Ambient wind shear is important
Fig. 11.18
4. Tornado formation (in a supercell)
a. Vortex tilting: horizontal vorticity from the ambient
wind shear is tilted

This explains
why wind shear
matters!!
b. Vortex stretching:

updraft increases rotation

Mesocyclone formation in a Supercell
Winds and temperature variation around a tornadic storm

NE

SW Vertical transect from SW to NE

About 5 miles
 5. Tornado evolution
 Tornadoes may come in families (called cyclic supercells)
 each tornado has a lifecycle (5 -15 min)
 new tornado forms to the (south)east of dissipating tornado
(rope stage)
 this is due to occlusion in supercell
 Cyclic
supercell

5 min later
 6. tornado forecasting
 The environment in which supercells may form can be predicted fairly well. The
NOAA Storm Prediction Center (SPC) does this from Norman OK.

 Supercells themselves cannot be accurately predicted, and it is not clear why

most supercells don’t, but some do, spawn tornadoes.

 Ground-based Doppler radars generally do not see a tornado.

 Supercells all have a mesocyclone.

 Radars can see this mesocyclone … this is the basis for issuing a tornado watch.
 Mesocyclone signature

Reflectivity

radial velocity
Find the mesocyclones
7. Damage by Tornadoes: the Fujita scale
 Tornadoes do most of their destruction through strong winds and impact of
airborne debris on surface objects

 Until recently, it was thought that buildings explode as a result of the

atmospheric pressure drop inside the funnel

 On buildings, the windward side wall blows in, then the roof is lifted up and the
other walls fall in
 The Fujita Scale of tornado intensities

 Developed by Dr. T. Theodore Fujita of the University of Chicago

 Based on structural engineering tests that determine exactly how strong winds
would be to produce the type of damage observed (measure length and width
of damage path)
 The Fujita Scale goes from F0 to F5
 F0: Gale Tornado

 Wind speed from 40-72 mph

 Some damage to chimneys
 Broken tree branches
 Trees with shallow roots pushed over
 Street signs and billboards damaged
 F1: Moderate Tornado
 Wind speed from 73 to 112 mph
 Peels the surface off of roofs
 Mobile homes overturned or pushed off of foundations
 Moving automobiles pushed of roads
 F2: Significant Tornado
 Winds from 113 to 157 mph
 Roofs ripped off of frame houses
 Mobile homes destroyed
 Large trees broken or uprooted
 Light objects transformed into missiles
 F3: Severe Tornado
 Winds from 158 to 206 mph
 Roofs and walls torn off of well-constructed houses
 Trains overturned
 Trees in forests uprooted
 Heavy cars become projectiles
 F4: Devastating Tornado
 Winds from 207 to 260 mph
 Well-constructed houses leveled
 Cars thrown
 Large objects become missiles
 Example: Saragosa, Tx (May, 1987)
 F5: Incredible Tornado
 Winds from 261 to 318 mph
 Strong frame houses carried large distances and disintegrated
 Large objects fly through the air in excess of 100 mph
 Trees debarked
 Incredible phenomena will occur: ex. Jerrell, Tx tornado (May
27, 1997)

Pavement stripped off of a highway Engine block of a car

F5: Incredible Tornado

A badly damaged car Remains of a mobile home

 Watch/Warning System

 Tornado watch: Condition are favorable for tornado formation

 Watch boxes usually cover an area of 140 miles wide and 200
miles long
 Issued by Nation Severe Storms Forecast Center
– See http://www.spc.noaa.gov/products/watch/
 Watch/Warning System
 Tornado warning: A tornado has been confirmed
 Size of a warning box is determined from the location, size, and
speed of the tornado
 review
 Final will cover
– Chapter 10
– Chapter 11
 Final is similar in format and value to the two mid-
semester tests
 Summary of chapter 10: how a mid-latitude frontal
disturbance works
 Fronts exist, may strengthen, and may evolve

– Polar front (initial)

– Developing phase (open wave)
– Mature phase (occlusion first forms)
– Dissipating stage (low far into the cold air)

 This evolution is tightly connected to the jet stream

Evolution of a frontal disturbance
 Chapter 10 review cont’d
 The jet stream is consistent with a large horizontal temperature gradient
(the atmosphere is baroclinic).
 The jet stream has waves, called Rossby waves
 These waves may first form in the lee of mountains (lee cyclogenesis)
 These waves propagate, and are unsteady
 The shorter waves are important for weather at the surface, because
– UL divergence occurs ahead of the Rossby trof
 UL divergence causes uplift, and cyclogenesis near the surface.
 These waves, in turn, are affected by the low-level cyclogenesis.
– Warm advection ahead of the surface low builds the UL ridge
– Cold advection behind the surface low deepens the UL trof.
 The evolution of midlatitude frontal disturbances is understood by the
synergy between UL wave evolution, and LL cyclone evolution (baroclinic
instability).
 Finally, the raison d’étre of these frontal disturbances is to transfer heat
poleward …
 fast fast

slow

Note the advection of cold and warm airmasses

 Chapter 11: review
 All thunderstorm types require static instability
– Low-level warm, humid air
– Upper-level cool air
 The more instability, the stronger the updraft, and the
more severe the storm can be
 Three types exist:
– Ordinary (air mass, single-cell)
– Multicell
– Supercell
 The distinction between these types is based on wind
shear
– Ordinary storms: little shear  short-lived
– Supercell storms: strong shear -> long-lived
 Thunderstorms are sometimes organized on the mesoscale
as large storm clusters (maybe squall lines)
 Chapter 11: review cont’d
 Supercell storms are marked by
– Rotating updraft
 Due to the tilting of horizontal spin (from the wind shear)
 Strengthened by vortex stretching
– Separate downdraft
– Sometimes also
 a hook echo
 a bounded weak-echo region
 A v-notch
 Most tornadoes, and all severe ones (F3-F5), are spawned by
supercell storms
 The supercell ‘mesocyclone’ may spawn a tornado by the same
mechanisms:
– Vortex tilting
– Vortex stretching
 Tornadoes are classified from F0 to F5, according to intensity