• Corpus ID: 201819667

Tornadoes in Nonmesocyclone Environments with Pre-existing Vertical Vorticity along Convergence Boundaries

@inproceedings{Caruso2005TornadoesIN,
  title={Tornadoes in Nonmesocyclone Environments with Pre-existing Vertical Vorticity along Convergence Boundaries},
  author={James Caruso},
  year={2005}
}

• J. Caruso
• Published 2005
• Environmental Science

Tornadoes resulting from stretching of pre-existing vertical vorticity along convergence boundaries are not unusual in the warm season in the central plains of the United States. These tornadoes are associated mainly with nonmesocyclone processes (Brady and Szoke 1989), sometimes called "nonsupercell" (Wakimoto and Wilson 1989), with the tornadoes often called "landspouts" (Bluestein 1985). In some cases, tornadoes in such environments can reach significant intensity (defined here as F2 or greater on the Fujita scale), particularly if instability is large. One example is the nonmesocyclone tornadoes that hit the Denver, Colorado area on 15 June 1988 (Wakimoto and Wilson 1989); two of the four tornadoes caused F2 and F3 damage. Another example is a case examined in this study with an F2 intensity nonmesocyclone tornado near Wellington, Kansas on 27 August 2004 that lasted nearly 20 minutes. So, it seems clear that some nonmesocyclone tornadoes can present a significant threat to property and lives, suggesting that terminology such as "landspout" (interpreted by many to mean "weak tornado") may at times be misleading or inappropriate. Nonmesocyclone tornadoes are typically more difficult to anticipate and forecast than supercell/ mesocyclone tornadoes, which have been more widely researched.