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Limitations of Radar (#1)
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Can You Tell from the Radar Images Below Which Storm Produced this Tornado??
Web article by Steve Allen, SOO, Houston/Galveston National Weather Service Office.
Address questions or comments to Steve.Allen@noaa.gov.
The tornado pictured above was generated by one of the thunderstorms in the
radar imagery loops below. The tornado touched down about 3:05 PM CDT on May
28, 1997, and persisted for approximately 17 minutes (until about 3:22 PM).
The 88D radar often shows quite pronounced tornado signatures ("hook" echoes
in low-elevation reflectivity products and velocity "couplets" in the storm
relative velocity products), but this is not always the case: Can you identify
the thunderstorm in the image loops below that is producing the tornado??
(Note: if you have a 20-inch monitor you can display these loops side by side,
but they will not be time-synchronized.)
NOTE: the image loops are the lowest elevation cut of base reflectivity and
storm relative motion. However, as experienced 88D operators may note... most
of this convection is forming on a giant, nearly circular outflow... thus average
cell motion nearly cancels itself out. The mean motion vector for the entire
time of these loops was only 2 knots from radial 159.
Click Here for a look at static images of base
reflectivity and storm relative velocity shortly after the tornado touched down.
Or, if you're just one of those incurious, impatient, instant gratification
types that just has to know where that tornado was RIGHT NOW...
Go for it!
Credits:
- Tornado pics were extracted from VHS video copy courtesy of Polk County EMC.
- The actual filming was done by deputies of the Polk County Sheriff's Office.
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