The Storm Prediction Center Tornadic Storm and Environment Database: Development and Application

Radar-identified convective modes and near-storm environment data were assigned to an 11-year sample of tornadoes (>12,000) reported in the contiguous United States (CONUS) during 2003-2013. The tornado segment data were filtered by the maximum EF-scale tornado event per hour using 40-km horizontal grid-spacing. Near-storm environment data, consisting primarily of supercell-related convective parameters from hourly objective mesoscale analysis calculated at the Storm Prediction Center (SPC), accompanied each tornado grid-hour event. Convective mode was assigned to each tornado event by manually examining full volumetric WSR-88D data at the beginning time of each event. A subset of the data during the 2009-2013 period includes manually identified peak low-level rotational velocity information immediately prior to and during the duration of each tornado event.

An overview of the project design and development will be discussed briefly. Results from early work showing relationships among tornadoes, the environment, and radar attributes in this multi-component dataset provide a template for future research. The SPC tornadic storm database is available for collaborative research, serving to enhance the interaction and communication between the research and operational communities in applied severe storms studies.