Details regarding the atmospheric environment that supported the supercell thunderstorm and tornado will be discussed. Specifically, strong convective instability was present, though coinciding with some inhibition and minimal large-scale support. In addition, middle and upper tropospheric wind fields remained relatively weak through the event, while the low-level kinematics became stronger with time.
Once the parent supercell thunderstorm developed, it quickly began to rotate and produce large hail. The supercell then slowed to a crawl and produced its first tornado about two hours after the initial severe hail report. The significant tornado followed roughly 50 minutes later. The nearly stationary storm and long duration tornado led to a highly non-linear cyclonically curved tornado track. Creating a representative tornado warning polygon was a challenge due to the non-linear track. NWS WSR-88D radars KFDX (Cannon AFB, New Mexico), KAMA (Amarillo, Texas) and KLBB (Lubbock, Texas) are located approximately equal distances from the location of the significant tornado and provided for detailed comparison of the radar moments around the time of the tornado. We will also discuss the challenges and explore different warning methodology strategies for these conditional but potentially significant severe weather events and non-linear tornado paths.
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