Evidence of upscale feedback from recent tornadic storms

Observational data and RUC model analyses are used to diagnose the upscale feedback from recent tornadic storms. Cases analyzed include the May 22, 2011 Joplin supercell, the multiple supercells associated with the large tornado outbreak in the southern United States on April 27, 2011, and the line echo wave pattern that affected parts of the Midwest and Ohio River Valley on June 14, 2010. Despite the relatively small time and space scales of these storms, we find that they generate mid-tropospheric vertical vorticity on the meso-alpha scale. This feedback is similar to that of mesoscale convective vortices, only not as large-scale. Of particular interest is the degree to which environmental convective available potential energy and storm-relative environmental helicity are mitigated by the storms.