Teddy Anderson

Met 1010
Tornado assignment
April 7, 2014
This presentation was interesting from the beginning because we heard a first-hand account of
how field data is collected The presenter added to the sub!ect material by telling us not only about
tornadoes themsel"es, but the conditions endured and steps in"ol"ed in underta#ing such a grand
e$pedition % li#ed hearing his account of day to day life, including the tas#s of #eeping oneself put
together& e$ercise, laundry, and the sheer number of hours spent dri"ing to get from one place to the
ne$t 'or a class li#e ours, % thin# an understanding of what field wor# is really li#e is a good place to
start when e"aluating our own interests in meteorology
The spea#er began with an o"er"iew of this specific pro!ect, in which we learned about all the
different entities in"ol"ed in such a collaboration The pro!ect(s name was )orte$2, and in"ol"ed o"er
100 scientists and a few do*en "ehicles, many of them specially e+uipped to withstand a beating from
the high winds associated with tornados %ts purpose was to gather as much data as possible to further
understand how, when and why tornados form, what are the wind structures of tornados, and how do
they do the most damage, and how can they be forecasted with more ad"ance notice in the future
-ifferent teams too# on different tas#s, with some cutting edge "ehicles and instruments being
implemented in the data collection ."er the course of about two months this massi"e team hauled
from state to state following tornado-type weather with these "arious aims in mind The pro!ect was
hea"ily funded by /.AA and the /0'
1earning the definition of a tornado was a great start to this lecture2 3a"ing ne"er li"ed in
tornado country, % was unaware of the relationship between the massi"e cumilform cloud abo"e, and
the funnel which usually, but not always, "isibly forms below The relationship between updrafts,
downdrafts, and o"ershooting tops is interesting and once it is understood, is intuiti"e in that air often
beha"es li#e water currents, with which % and most people are more familiar The o"ershooting cloud
tops are especially interesting and distinct, and can gi"e us information about what is happening below
The data collection instruments are their own sub!ect in themsel"es %t ma#es sense that some
of them are on site and some are remote, and that "ery different data can be gained from each As with
most things, instruments( effecti"eness in"ol"es a learning process, and while some of their instruments
pro"e less effecti"e than others 4li#e the glider plane,5 this trial and error is how they are twea#ed and
made better for future research The radar was "ery cool, especially when the eye of the storm #ept
mo"ing closer and closer to them until they had to turn off their machine and dri"e away to ensure their
own safety % ha"e seen such radar images in the past and didn(t reali*e they were ground-based %t(s
ama*ing that doppler measurements can be made with e"erything from light to sound to wind speeds
The radar would be a fun instrument to operate
The measurement of damage caused by a tornado, and the resulting categori*ation, is not what %
imagined at all % thought the ratings were based entirely on wind speeds or cloud "olume or purely
empirical data 6ut the more sub!ecti"e measurements of a hurricane(s damage can actually be a more
effecti"e way of truly con"eying and +uantifying its force And it is especially interesting that the
history of measurements tops off well below the actual top of the chart, since anything abo"e a
category 7 is so destructi"e as to hardly be distinguishable from a 7 itself And the spiral mar#s left
along the ground are especially interesting in retracing a tornado(s path of destruction, as again the
wind funnel seems to beha"e much li#e a whirlpool of water mo"ing along in the current
The "ariety of tornados was interesting as well, with the multi-suction "ortices and their
interactions with each other, and their relationship to their common center The coc#tail of ingredients
necessary for their formation showed !ust how powerful they really are, especially how the macro scale
differs from the micro scale and the small dust de"ils %("e seen in the desert The moisture, wind shear
and instability create a real monster of currents up there in the s#y, with a lot of different results 6ut
when that result is a small funnel on the wrong path across the land, the damage can be de"astating
0ome of his photos were so beautiful that it was hard to belie"e how terrifying those same
clouds can become !ust moments or hours later 3is presentation made this wor# seem li#e a lot of fun
and a lot of hard wor#, combined with the occasional great opportunity to go out on the open road and
e$perience first-hand the "ery thing which years of boo#-study can not teach you& that the forces of the
atmosphere, and the outdoor world in general, are better appreciated, understood, and sometimes feared
when e$perienced up close first-hand Than#s for bringing him in to tal#2