Assessing the Role of Tropical Cyclone Size in Tornado Production

Tornadoes in tropical cyclones have large amounts of variability in their behavior from year to year and
even through the lifetime of a single storm. While these tornadoes are weaker on average than those occurring
in midlatitudes, they still pose a hazard that can bring potential harm. Previous studies have attempted to
establish the relationship between tropical cyclone size and tornado production and behavior and concluded
larger tropical cyclones will produce more tornadoes at a further distance from the storm center. However,
these previous studies used an antiquated, highly subjective dataset and outer size metric to establish this
relationship. Revisiting prior work, using a less subjective, more reliable outer size metric from a modern outer
size dataset to conduct a statistical analysis to determine the validity of the relationship. Our analysis show
that tropical cyclone size was determined to not be a strong factor in determining either tornado radius or
number. While outer size may not provide a direct influence on tornado behavior, a more extensive look at
convective evolution in tropical cyclones would greatly benefit the field in future work.