The dependence of tornado corner flow dynamics on the outer core flow ‎

The interaction between a tornado and its immediate environment is a critical component in ‎determining corner flow dynamics. Investigation of this interaction has been limited to sparse in ‎situ measurements and idealized simulations. Therefore, in order to better characterize this ‎dependency, a tornado-scale model has been developed that allows for the specification of winds ‎at the lateral and top boundaries. Importantly, winds retrieved from high-resolution, Doppler on ‎Wheels data of the 12 May 2004 Harper, KS tornadoes were used as model boundary conditions. ‎Simulations were conducted on a 1 km×1 km×2 km grid, with a grid spacing of 5 m. The effects ‎of this varied inflow on the corner region dynamics and on the maximum wind speed of the ‎tornado-like vortices will be presented. ‎