An Integrated Damage, Visual, and Radar Analysis of the 2015 Foshan, Guangdong EF3 Tornado in China Produced by the Landfalling Typhoon Mujigae (2015)

This work presents a detailed analysis on a tropical cyclone (TC) associated tornado based on ground and aerial damage surveys, visual, and radar observations. On 4 October 2015, an EF3 tornado spawned in typhoon Mujigae hit Foshan, Guangdong Province, China. This tornado was generated in a mini-supercell ~350 km northeast of the TC center and lasted about 32 min, leaving a southeast to northwest damage swath 30.85 km long and 20 to 570 m wide. Near-surface wind patterns and size of the tornado, juxtaposition of the condensation funnel with the damage swath and radar signatures, consistency between near-surface wind speed estimated from visual observations and that estimated using EF-scale were revealed based on ground and aerial surveys, tornado videos, photographs, radar and surface observations. Tornado videos showed two occurrences of vertical subvortices followed by the formation of a horizontal vortex. The sign of the horizontal vortex was found to be the same as that observed in a violent mid-latitude tornado in U.S. Some features of the tornado, the parent supercell and mesocyclone, and the convective environment were compared to their U.S. counterparts. This work also provides a case review of a tornado with the most comprehensive information ever in China. Damage indicators used to estimate the tornado intensity in this Chinese case were compared with those in the U.S., demonstrating the potential applicability of EF scale in tornado damage surveys outside the U.S.