Severe Convective Storm and Tornado Data Collected by RaXPol During the 2017 and 2018 Spring Seasons

This presentation will highlight the datasets collected during the last two spring field experiments using RaXPol, a mobile, rapid-scan, X-band, polarimetric Doppler radar.

In 2017, data were collected on 12 days in Oklahoma, Kansas, Texas, Wyoming, and Nebraska. Highlights included: three tornadoes in supercells, two of which formed in a cyclic manner; many non-tornadic supercells; bores generated above a gust front/outflow boundary from a severe, multicell storm; large hail on several occasions, including baseball-size – 3 inch diameter hail.

In 2018, data were collected on 13 days in Oklahoma, Kansas, Wyoming, and South Dakota. Highlights included: the evolution of a tornadic storm from a near first echo/ordinary cell stage through supercell formation and tornadogenesis; the structure of an intense QLCS vortex; the split of a convective storm; supercell evolution including simultaneous time-lapse video documentation; mammatus structure and evolution at the rear of an MCS; and the characteristics of a smoke plume from a forest fire. Doppler spectra were also collected in a tornadic supercell. The 2018 storm season was unusual in that there were no deployments in March or April.

A brief summary of the data collected along with opportunities for research projects will be given.