length: 439 words 1.3 double spaced pages rating: red free one of the most devastating natural disasters is the tornado. Of all the natural disasters, the tornado is the one that still has the most questions left unanswered. What we do know is that a tornado is a violently rotating column of air underneath a cumuliform cloud. This column of air is visible most of the time, but it does not always have to be.

No one is exactly sure how tornadoes form, but most occur from supercells edwards 1. It is impossible to predict exactly when and where a tornado will occur, but meteorologists are getting better. The purpose of this paper is not to inform you of the technicalities of a tornado, but rather to tell you about some of the worst tornadoes that have ever occurred. For the next three and a half hours more people would be killed, more schools would be destroyed, and more deaths would occur in a single city than from any other tornado in u. The town of murphysboro, with 234 deaths, had the largest death toll ever recorded within a single city. With over 400 lives lost and over $10,0,0 in losses, illinois suffered the most of the three states.

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When it was all said and done the tri state tornado had killed 695 people and injured over 2,0, which is why it is known as the deadliest tornado ever. A series of tornadoes struck the central united states and spread damage all the way up to ontario in 1974. The damage effected so many states and caused so much damage that this series of tornadoes is known as the super outbreak. They ate up homes, schools and businesses, leaving behind $600 million in damage nord 1. Nssl's tornado research targets ways to improve tornado forecasts and warnings to help save lives.

tornadogenesis

nssl participated in the verification of the origins of rotation in tornadoes experiment 2009 2010 vortex2 , the largest tornado research project in history to explore how, when and why tornadoes form. The national oceanic and atmospheric administration noaa and national science foundation nsf supported more than 100 scientists, students and staff from around the world to collect weather measurements around and under thunderstorms that could produce tornadoes. We continue to study the vast amounts of data to learn what specific ingredients thunderstorms need to form a tornado, what causes it to die, and why some rotating thunderstorms produce tornadoes and others do not.

tornado dynamics

nssl researchers have created a computer model that simulates a tornado producing thunderstorm in 3 d. We use this model to study what changes in the environment cause a thunderstorm to produce a tornado, and how the tornado and storm behaves as it encounters different weather conditions.

However, a nearly 20% of all tornadoes are associated with lines of strong thunderstorms called quasi linear convective systems qlcs. Qlcs tornadoes frequently occur during the late night and early morning hours when the public is less aware of severe weather hazards.

tornado detection

the national network of weather radars now use dual polarization technology, and nssl continues to be a leader and major contributor to its ongoing scientific and engineering development.

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Nssl researchers discovered dual polarization radars can detect debris from a tornado, helping forecasters pinpoint its location even at night or if it is wrapped in rain. Nssl has a research phased array radar that can scan the entire sky for severe weather in less than a minute, five times faster than current weather radars. This phased array radar has been used to capture developing tornadoes both in qlcs's and supercells. Researchers are hoping to collect more high resolution data on these storms to look for clues on radar that a tornado is forming. Phased array radar has strong potential to aid the nws in the forecast and warning decision process by providing new radar data more quickly.

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tornado warning decision support

nssl continues to work on an automated multi radar, multi sensor mrms system that quickly integrates data streams from multiple radars, surface and upper air observations, lightning detection systems, and satellite and forecast models. The mrms system was developed to produce severe weather and precipitation products for improved decision making capability within noaa. Nssl's on demand is a web based tool that helps confirm when and where tornadoes may have occurred by mapping circulations detected by radar on google earth satellite images. Nws forecasters can quickly review warnings and check their accuracy with this system. Emergency responders and damage surveyors have also used on demand to produce high resolution street maps of affected areas, so they can more effectively begin rescue and recovery efforts and damage assessments. Nssl and the noaa national weather service collaborate to streamline moving research into practical operations. Nssl has developed severe weather warning applications and decision support systems that will make the forecasters job easier.

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The result will be improved nws warning services for the public, increased detection accuracy, and longer lead times.

tornado forecasting

nssl's warn on forecast project aims to create highly detailed computer weather forecast models that predict what the atmosphere will look like in the future. These models are unique because they will use the latest weather observations and radar scans to continuously re compute forecasts. We want these forecasts to accurately predict when and where tornadoes will occur in the next hour so forecasters can issue warnings based on that forecast and give people more time to find shelter.

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tornado preparedness

we are very involved in shaping a weather ready nation to improve the public's preparedness for extreme weather. We are looking at ways to improve the forecast and warning system, communicate threats to the public, increase community resilience, and identify gaps in our current understanding of planning, coordination and decision making in a community. An nssl scientist developed the severe thunderstorm climatology to estimate the likelihood of severe weather events such as tornadoes on a given day in the u.s. Researchers are able to compare the film images with doppler radar data and discover a pattern that meant the tornado was forming before it appeared on film. This important discovery eventually caused noaa to begin a nationwide deployment of a national network of doppler radars. Nssl's legacy in organized field experiments begins with the tornado intercept project in 1975 led by nssl's bob davies jones.

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Nssl's don burgess provided storm intercept crews with live radar information via radio – and the term nowcaster was born. Nssl conducts the joint doppler operational project jdop in 1976 to prove doppler radar could improve the nation's ability to warn for severe thunderstorms and tornadoes. Air force's air weather service, and federal aviation administration faa to include doppler capability in their future operational radars. Nssl attempts to deploy toto, the totable tornado observatory in the path of an oncoming tornado from 1981 1984. The verification of the origins of rotation in tornadoes experiment vortex was a two year project designed to answer a number of ongoing questions about the causes of tornado formation. A new mobile doppler radar was used and provided revolutionary data on several tornadic storms. You can read more about the history of the vortex projects at nssl and see an interactive, multimedia timeline on the vortex @ nssl page.

Vortex 99 is operating when an f5 tornado tore through parts of south oklahoma city on may 3, 19. During the deadly outbreak, nws forecasters rely on nssl's warning decision support system wdss to make timely and accurate tornado warnings. Throughout history, humans have been amazed and intrigued by the various forces of nature, particularly those associated with weather. This fascination can most readily be attributed to the fact that so many different weather patterns exist throughout the world.

This diversity in climates results in a wide range of weather conditions from relatively calm weather to dangerously violent storms. Despite the great variation in weather patterns among the worlds many climates, tornadoes are one weather phenomenon that have been known to occur in almost every climate on earth. Because a tornado is one of the worlds most deadly forces of nature, it is important for humans to strive to understand what tornadoes are, how they are formed, their potential dangers, and how to better predict the formation of tornadoes so that effective warnings can be issued. In order to completely understand the dangers of tornadoes, it is important to examine the current explanations for how and why tornadoes form. Supercell storms are particularly large, severe storms that develop in highly unstable environments in which cool, dry air lies above warm, moist air. Supercells typically form in the united states during the spring as warm, moist air from the gulf of mexico flows north and comes in contact with cooler, dryer layers of air. The midwestern section of the united states tends to be the location for the majority of the countrys tornadoes.

Because of this, the area from the gulf of mexico to the great lakes, spanning over one thousand miles wide, is referred to as tornado alley. Although the number of tornadoes reported in the united states each year may seem rather high, in actuality only one percent of all thunderstorms make tornadoes. Of the total number of tornadoes recorded each year, on average, seventy nine percent are considered to be weak, twenty percent are rated as strong, and one percent are recorded as violent. Although tornadoes appear mostly in the united states, they have been reported worldwide. It is evident that tornadoes are not isolated to the tornado alley of the united states, but do occur in all different types of regions all over the earth. Once it is understood of how and why tornadoes form, the next step is to attempt to predict their behavior. Due to the strength of the winds within a tornado, the path that it takes may highly unpredictable.