Tornadogenesis in a Supercell Near the Northwest Texas-Southwestern Oklahoma Border on 16 May 2015: A Comparison of the Evolution of Vortex Shear Signatures From Two Nearby, Mobile, Rapid-Scan, X-Band, Doppler Radars

On 16 May 2015 a large tornado formed in a supercell in northwest Texas and then crossed the Red River into southwestern Oklahoma. The formation of the tornado was documented by two rapid-scan, mobile, X-band, Doppler radars located within a few km of each other. One, the MWR-05XP, a hybrid phased-array radar, provided volumetric data every 6 – 14 s; the other, RaXPol, a mechanically scanning polarimetric radar, provided volumetric data every 25 s. This dual-radar data collection presented a unique opportunity to investigate the behavior of the TVS as a function of time and height from two, almost collocated, different radar systems, having different space and time resolutions. In this presentation it will be shown that based on data from both radars, the TVS formed first aloft, between 1 – 4 km AGL and then appeared separately, below 1.5 km AGL, and became most intense at the lowest elevation angle a few minutes later. These observations are compared with those from other cases.