Comparison of Inflow Conditions of both a Tornadic and Nontornadic Supercell in Close Proximity on May 6th, 2024

The Thermodynamic Investigation of LCL Thresholds during Tornadogenesis and its Influence in the Northeast and Great Plains (TILTTING) is an undergraduate student-led research initiative aimed at enhancing tornado detection, prediction, and local impact assessment. This project integrates classroom learning with hands-on fieldwork and advanced meteorological tools, including radar, mobile weather stations, radiosondes, and satellite data. This past May, the initiative deployed to the Great Plains for two weeks of data collection. On May 6th, 2024 a very high-end convective environment materialized over the Southern Great Plains, centered over Central Oklahoma. The synoptic setup and parameter space appeared particularly supportive for numerous strong, long-tracked tornadoes, prompting the Storm Prediction Center to issue a rare High Risk in anticipation of a potential tornado outbreak. Researchers from the TILTTING Project mobilized in Central Oklahoma with the intent of intercepting the supercell thunderstorms that would form later in the day. However, despite numerous discrete supercells forming in what was widely regarded as a truly upper-echelon environment, nearly all of them struggled considerably to produce strong tornadoes, with a number of them failing to become tornadic entirely. TILTTING researchers deployed on three of these supercells, launching Windsond soundings into the inflows of two of them. Of these two, one would go on to become tornadic, while the other one would not. This poster will examine and compare the data of these two soundings with the goal of finding a meaningful difference between the data with material implications relating to supercell tornadogenesis. The hope is to provide additional insight as to why one of these storms produced a tornado while the other remained non-tornadic, despite existing in close proximity to one another in the same high-end parameter space.