Mobile Mesonet Observations from the Low-Level Internal Flow in Tornadoes (LIFT) project

This spring the University of Oklahoma, NOAA’s National Severe Storms Laboratory, and Texas Tech University began collecting observations as part of the “Low-Level Internal Flow in Tornadoes”, or LIFT, project. The aim of this project is to focus observations on the near surface conditions directly surrounding an ongoing tornadic vortex. Observations were collected from a variety of platforms including the KA band mobile radars from TTU, surface observations from the NSSL mobile mesonets, lidar observations from the NSSL mobile lidar vehicle, and upper air observations from a variety of soundings across several notable cases this spring. In this presentation, an early look at the kinematic and thermodynamic observations from the mobile mesonets will be presented to explore any heterogeneities in the near surface environment and document any indication of surface convergence boundaries or SVC’s as they related to tornado formation, maintenance, or demise.