21st Conf. on Severe Local Storms and 19th Conf. on Weather Analysis and Forecasting/15th Conf. on Numerical Weather Prediction

Tuesday, 13 August 2002
Synoptic and mesoscale patterns associated with violent tornadoes across separate geographic regions of the United States: part II—upper-level characteristics
Chris Broyles, NOAA/NWS, Amarillo, TX; and N. Dipasquale and R. Wynne
Poster PDF (3.8 MB)
The purpose of Part II of this study is to build on prior research by increasing the knowledge of the upper-level patterns associated with violent tornadoes. Also, Part II presents the similarities and differences of the patterns across separate geographic regions of the United States. For this study, 38 violent United States tornado episodes including 70 violent tornado tracks were considered from 1993 to 1999. Upper-level synoptic weather maps from the initialized ETA model have been examined to recognize the patterns associated with the violent tornadoes. Atmospheric jets, vorticity maxima, and vorticity minima have been analyzed on synoptic maps. In addition, wind speeds and upper-level moisture parameters have been analyzed. As a result, upper-level synoptic and mesoscale patterns favorable for violent tornadoes are presented for different geographic regions of the United States.

Supplementary URL: http://www.srh.noaa.gov/ama/html/Violenttornadoes.html