P4.14
The Kellerville Tornado during VORTEX: Damage Survey and Doppler Radar Analyses
Roger Wakimoto, University of California, Los Angeles, CA; and H. Murphey, D. C. Dowell, and H. Bluestein
A detailed aerial and ground survey of a long track (~50 km) F5 tornado is presented. Two sections of the tornadošs path exhibited unusual nonlinear movements. One portion of the track was associated with a pronounced sinusoidal pattern while another location was characterized by a cusp-like pattern. For the first time, high-resolution dual-Doppler wind syntheses using ELDORA (Electra Doppler Radar) were collected on the tornado when it was making these deviations from a linear path. The ELDORA analyses suggest that these departures are trochoidal marks produced as the tornado was revolving within the larger-scale mesocyclone. Retrieved perturbation pressures indicate that the mesocyclone departed significantly from a cyclostrophically-balanced state during these deviations.
The characteristics of the mesocyclone at low levels were shown to be a poor indicator of tornadošs intensity. Vertical cross sections of wind, vertical vorticity, radar reflectivity, and perturbation pressure were photogrammetrically superimposed onto two pictures of the tornado. This merger of data provides a unique view of the structural relationship between the hook echo and the mesocyclone. One of the important conclusions was the lack of a definitive relationship between the widths of the mesocyclone and the tornado.
Poster Session 4, Radar Applications
Tuesday, 13 August 2002, 3:00 PM-4:30 PM
Previous paper