Response of Simulated Supercells to the Evolving Near-Storm Environment around the 1 September 2021 Annapolis Tornado

The EF2 tornado that touched down in Anne Arundel County on the afternoon of September 1, 2021 was one of the strongest tornadoes recorded in Maryland history. Several environmental and atmospheric conditions, both large and small scale, were conducive to this event occurring. On the large scale, this storm was associated with the remnants of Hurricane Ida that swept the Southern United States in August and September of 2021. High winds and atmospheric instability were present in the Mid-Atlantic region, causing a series of thunderstorms. This study will utilize the Rapid Refresh to characterize the near-storm environment in and around the Annapolis region. These environments will be used to simulate storms using Cloud Model 1. New simulations with hourly data will be run and the resulting storms will be analyzed to determine how the changing convective environment became favorable for tornadogenesis. More simulations with small changes in the initial conditions of the environment will be run to analyze how these storms differ from the original environment.