Surface observations in the forward-flank downdraft of a tornadic and nontornadic supercell

In the classic supercell conceptual model, the forward-flank downdraft (FFD) is the region where condensate loading and the latent chilling of air owing to the melting and evaporation of precipitation create negative buoyancy. A dearth of direct thermodynamic observations inside the FFD have been analyzed, neither in tornadic nor nontornadic supercells. Therefore, it has not yet been verified whether any relationship exists between the characteristics of the FFD and tornadogenesis. In this paper, in situ observations from a mobile mesonet obtained within FFDs are used to investigate whether any relationship exists between the thermodynamic characteristics of the FFD and tornadogenesis. We compare data from one tornadic and one nontornadic case in this preliminary study.