Tornado Vortex Signatures in Doppler radial velocity patterns
The most important phenomena associated with severe convection are tornadoes. When a tornado is present, it is usually small enough that it fits within one or two beam widths.
Tornado climatology
Oldest known photograph of a tornado, 1884.
The United States experiences by far the most tornadoes of any country, and has also suffered the most intense ones.
Tornadoes occur in many parts of the world, however, no region is more favorable than the plains and Gulf Coast of the United States, the peak season April, May and June.
The tornado picture below is said to be the oldest known photo of a twister. It was taken 22 miles southwest of Howard, South Dakota on August 28, 1884. The photographer is unknown.
TORNADO
A violently rotating column of air in contact with the ground and extending from the base of a thunderstorm.
Tornadoes
The afternoon of 2 February 1918 was humid and unsettled in Melbourne, with a slow-moving low pressure trough crossing Victoria. As the trough approached, heavy thunderclouds built up. About 4.
Tornado - A violently rotating narrow column of air in contact with the ground and extending from a thunderstorm base. The tornado is most often found in the southwest quadrant of the storm, near the trailing edge of the cumulonimus cloud.
Tornado: A violently rotating column of air, a vortex, formed in a thunderstorm which is in contact with both the parent cloud and the ground with a diameter between tens and hundreds of metres.
Tornado Warning - issued by the local National Weather Service office when a tornado or funnel cloud has been sighted visually or detected by radar; the location and direction of movement, if know, are given, ...
Tornado Family - A series of tornadoes produced by a single supercell, resulting in damage path segments along the same general line.
Tornado Watch- A Tornado Watch outlines an area where large hail and damaging wind threats, as well as the possibility of multiple tornadoes are possible.
Tornado
A funnel-shaped whirlwind which extends to the ground from storm clouds
Tropics ...
Tornado Vortex Signature
An image of a tornado on the Doppler radar screen that shows up as a small region of rapidly changing wind speeds inside a mesocyclone.
Tornado: A violently rotating column of air that extends downward from the bottom of a thunderstorm to the ground.
Tornado alley: A region of maximum tornado occurrence, often defined to be in the Great Plains from Texas to Kansas.
tornado: small mass of air that spins rapidly about an almost vertical axis and forms a funnel cloud that contacts the ground. Comes down from a cumulonimbus cloud and is considered probably the most destructive of all weather systems.
Tornado - A tornado appears as a violent funnel-shaped wind vortex in the lower atmosphere with upward spiralling winds of high speeds - spawned by severe thunderstorms. The tornado usually appears from a bulge in the base of a cumulonimbus cloud.
Tornado
(Twister) A violently rotating storm of small diameter; the most violent weather phenomenon. It is produced in a very severe thunderstorm and appears as a funnel cloud extending from the base of a Cumulonimbus to the ground.
Tornadoes
The cyclone of the temperate regions, the tornado and the hurricane are all vortex-like low-pressure areas, but of very different character.
Tornado An intense, rotating column of air that protrudes from a cumulonimbus cloud in the shape of a funnel or a rope and touches the ground. (See Funnel cloud.) ...
TORNADO - A violent rotating column of air, usually forming a pendant from a cumulonimbus cloud with the circulation reaching the ground. It nearly always starts as a funnel cloud and may be accompanied by a loud roaring noise.
Tornado alley Region of maximum tornado frequency in North America; a corridor stretching from central Texas northward into Oklahoma, Kansas and Nebraska, and eastward into central Illinois and Indiana, ...
tornado (sometimes called cyclone, twister)—A violently rotating column of air, pendant from a cumulonimbus cloud, and nearly always observable as “funnel-shaped.
Tornado A twisting, spinning funnel of low pressure air. The most unpredictable weather event, tornadoes are created during powerful thunderstorms. As a column of warm air rises, air rushes in at ground level and begins to spin.
Tornado Alley- The area of the United States in which tornadoes are most frequent. It encompasses the great lowland areas of the Mississippi, the Ohio, and lower Missouri River Valleys.
Tornado Warning - Issued to warn the public, emergency management and other cooperating agencies when a tornado is forecast to occur or is occurring. The warning will include where the storm was occurring and its direction of movement.
TVS- Tornado Vortex Signature
TWEAK- To change slightly. Often in reference to slightly changing MOS output or any other form of model guidance.
UA- Upper Air ...
Tornado: Extension of the base of a Cumulonimbus cloud, in the form of funnel, which, circulating fast, goes down to the surface of the Earth, where it produces as strong whirlwind capable of causing great destruction.
Tornado- A rapidly whirling, funnel-shaped cloud that reaches down from a storm cloud to touch Earth's surface, usually leaves a destructive path.
Troposphere- The lowest layer of Earth's atmosphere, where weather occurs.
TORNADO: A violent rotating column of air, extending from the base of a cumulonimbus cloud to the ground, producing damaging winds up to 300 mph.
Tornado- A violently rotating column of air that reaches from the base of a cloud to the ground.
Tropics- The area of the globe from latitudes 23.5 degrees north to 23.5 degrees south.
Tornadoes,
Lines of thunderstorms,
Embedded thunderstorms, and/or
Hail greater than or equal to 3/4" in diameter.
Tornado - It begins as a funnel cloud with spinning columns of air that drop down from a severe thunderstorm. When they reach the ground they become tornadoes.
TORNADO - A region of rotation extending from the base of a thunderstorm or other convective cloud to the earth's surface. This is a vortex, or wind velocity field, with a speed of at least 40 MPH at the surface.
A Tornado Watch is issued by the Storm Prediction Center (SPC) in Norman, Oklahoma.
A tornado-like rotating column of fire and smoke created by intense heat from a forest fire or volcanic eruption.
FIRST GUST ...
All tornadoes, and most other severe local windstorms, are assigned a single number from this scale according to the most intense damage caused by the storm.
Funnel cloud ...
Like a Tornado Warning, the Severe Thunderstorm Warning is issued by your National Weather Service Forecast Office (NWFO).
FIREWHIRL
A tornado-like rotating column of fire and smoke created by intense heat from a forest fire or volcanic eruption.
Fujita tornado scale Based upon damage patterns, classifies twisters into six categories of wind speed (F0 thru F5), ranging from 40 to 318 mph estimated wind speed, plus a hypothetical F6 with winds from 318 mph to Mach 1.
MULTIPLE VORTEX TORNADO A tornado which has two or more condensation funnels or debris clouds, often rotating around a common center.
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Cold-air-funnelA funnel cloud or (rarely) a small, relatively weak tornado that can develop from a small shower or thunderstorm when the air aloft is unusually cold (hence the name). They are much less violent than other types of tornadoes.
When observed from a distance, they are sometimes mistaken for tornadoes. SEA BREEZE A diurnal coastal breeze that blows onshore, from the sea to the land.
Tornadoes may develop from wall clouds attached to the rain-free base, or from the rain-free base itself - especially when the rain-free base is on the south or southwest side of the main precipitation area.
Debris CloudA rotating "cloud" of dust or debris, near or on the ground, often appearing beneath a condensation funnel and surrounding the base of a tornado.
A severe thunderstorm can cause flash flooding and wind and hail damage and may spawn tornadoes.shortwave irradianceThe rate at which radiant energy, at wavelengths between 0.
Note particularly the development of the cloud/s giving rise to the thunderstorm/tornado/waterspout/etc. What we are looking for is the rapidity of build of the cloud; its vertical extent in a noted time.
These may produce some heavy rain, hail, or even a weak tornado, but they are usually short-lived (30 minutes or less). The second type is known as a multicell cluster composed of a group of convective clouds that move together as a single unit.
In general use the term cyclone is applied to any storm, especially violent, small-scale circulations such as tornados, waterspouts, and dust devils.
Enhanced wording - An option used by in some tornado and severe thunderstorm watches when the potential for strong to violent tornadoes, or unusually widespread damaging straight-line winds, is considered high.
Listed weather types include tornado, waterspout, funnel cloud, thunderstorm and severe storm, liquid precipitation (drizzle, rain, rain showers), freezing precipitation (freezing drizzle, freezing rain), and frozen precipitation (snow, snow pellets, ...
Vaues of 1 or more are said to indicate a heightened threat of tornadoes; values of 5 or more are rarely observed, and are said to indicate potential for violent tornadoes.
A rotating "cloud" of dust or debris, near or on the ground, often appearing beneath a condensation funnel and surrounding the base of a tornado.
A thunderstorm that undergoes cycles of intensification and weakening (pulses) tornadoes (i.e., a tornado family) and/or several bursts of severe weather. A storm that undergoes only one cycle (pulse), and then dissipates, is known as a pulse storm.
[Thunderstorms & Tornadoes] [Hurricanes] [Blizzards & Winter Weather] [Clouds] ...
Box (or Watch Box) - [Slang], a severe thunderstorm or tornado watch. See blue box, red box.
BRN - See Bulk Richardson Number.
Nearly all mesocyclones and strong or violent tornadoes exhibit cyclonic rotation, but some smaller vortices such as gustnadoes occasionally rotate anticyclonically (clockwise). Compare with anticyclonic rotation.
Doppler radar: weather radar system that employs the apparent shift in frequency of radio waves to perceive air motion and consequently predict tornadoes and precipitation sooner than previous radars, ...
Suction vortices Small, rapidly rotating whirls perhaps 10 meters in diameter that are found within large tornadoes.
Sulfur dioxide (SO2) A colorless gas that forms primarily in the burning of sulfur-containing fossil fuels.
Fujita Intensity Scale (F-scale) - A scale developed by T. Theodore Fujita for classifring the severity of a tornado, based on the correlation of wind speed with the degree of destruction.
Mesocyclone - A storm-scale region of rotation, typically around 2-6 miles in diameter. The circulation of a mesocyclone covers an area much larger than the tornado that may develop within it.
 See also: Storm, Weather, Cloud, Thunder, Thunderstorm
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