The U.S. Tornadoes Case Archive has arrived!
Storm chasing and severe storm research has seen quite a boom in the past couple decades. Now more than ever, hundreds of eyes may be glued to the skies on any given day when storms are expected. As technology improves, many new tools have been developed to forecast severe storms.
As far as many are concerned, the most powerful tool is the simplest: our records of past events.
Upper-air soundings (modeled or actual) are vital for predicting severe storms. However observed soundings, like you’ll find from the Storm Prediction Center, are launched only twice a day, hundreds of miles apart, and rarely tell us the actual conditions near these storms. To fill in the gaps, we can use modeled soundings to get quite a bit closer.
To create the files in the database, we harnessed the Rapid Refresh (RAP) and Rapid Update Cycle (RUC) models to give us an idea of the near-storm environment of hundreds of past “famous” events.
Because we’re founded on the art of storm chasing, in addition to significant tornadoes, we made sure to include just as many memorable photogenic tubes, mothership supercells, powerful derechos, and gnarly haboobs as we could. We hope it serves as a useful bookmark for forecasters, researchers, enthusiasts, and storm chasers alike.
The image below corresponds roughly to the image up top, taken by ustornadoes.com’s Ian Livingston. Both are focused on the well-known Leoti, Kansas mothership supercell of May 2016. In addition to its stunning structure, there were a few quick tornadoes to top off the huge chase day.
Go check out the database and dig in! You might want to bring some snacks…
Cameron Nixon
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