Possible Role of Super-critical Vortices in Tornadogenesis and Maintenance

We suggest that high-energy, super-critical vortices in the sense of Benjamin (1962), that have been studied by Fiedler and Rotunno (1986), have negative temperature in the sense of Onsager (1949) and play an important role in tornadogenesis and maintenance. Using the 3-dimensional vortex gas model presented in Chorin (1994) and developed further in Flandoli and Gubinelli (2002) we suggest that these vortices pump energy into the insipient tornado vortex.