An Examination of the Structure of Two Tornadoes Observed by Texas Tech Ka-band Radars During VORTEX2

Knowledge of the vertical structure of tornados is of great importance to meteorologists and civil engineers alike, albeit for different reasons. Meteorologists' interest in the vertical structure of tornadoes stems from a desire to better understand and predict the genesis, movement and dissipation of tornadoes, while the engineering community is interested in building structures that are better suited to withstand the winds of a tornado. Both the laboratory experiments as well as the numerical simulations have shown that structure of the tornado is highly dependent on the swirl ratio.

This poster will focus on the horizontal structure of two short lived, relatively weak tornadoes using data collected by the two Texas Tech University Ka-band radars during the VORTEX2 project. The two tornadoes that will be examined in this study are the May 18, 2010 tornado near Stinnett, TX and the May 25, 2010 tornado near Tribune, KS. The evolution of the vortex structure will be diagnosed using the Ground- Based Velocity Track Display (GBVTD) technique of Lee et al. (1999). The appropriate scaling of tangential winds outside the radius of maximum wind for these weak tornadoes will be discussed as well as the variability of radial flow. In addition, the swirl ratio of the Stinnett tornado will be calculated and placed into the context of current conceptual models.