18.2 The Tri-State Tornado of 18 March 1925. Part II: Re-examination of the weather conditions supporting the parent storm

Friday, 10 November 2006: 1:45 PM
St. Louis AB (Adam's Mark Hotel)
Robert A. Maddox, Consultant, Tucson, AZ; and M. S. Gilmore, C. Crisp, J. A. Hart, C. A. Doswell III, and D. W. Burgess

The Tri-State tornado of 18 March 1925 remains the most infamous killer tornado in the historical record. Surprisingly, only one formal publication (the April 1925 issue of Mon. Wea. Rev.) ever addressed the detailed meteorological aspects of the event. That study pre-dated the acceptance and application of frontal theory and the modern era of tornado forecasting.

In Part II, we present our preliminary re-analysis, derived from handwritten weather records collected from libraries across the country, with the goal of confirming or denying existing notions about

• the tornadic storm's location within the synoptic-scale cyclone, and

• the synoptic and mesoscale environment that maintained the long-lived tornadic storm.

These preliminary analyses are interpreted in light of current knowledge regarding violent long-track tornadoes.

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