Characteristics of cool season severe environments in the Ohio Valley (1995-2006)

While the spring and summer months are typically the severe weather climatological peak for the Ohio Valley, severe thunderstorms and deadly regional tornado outbreaks can occur during the cool season months (e.g. October-March). In an effort to better document and improve operational forecasting of these events, this study focuses on cool season severe thunderstorm environments in the Ohio Valley for the 1995-2006 cool seasons.

Most supercell tornado events in the Ohio Valley during the cool season are characterized by low instability/high shear environments. Preliminary findings suggest small changes in available instability can be responsible for distinct changes in storm mode and severity. One example of a storm in this environment was the 6 November 2005 Evansville, Indiana supercell that produced a deadly F3 tornado. In addition to investigating Doppler radar data, this study will focus on the synoptic and mesoscale environments for each cool season event.