ROTATE-98

Radar
Observations of
Tornadoes
And
Thunderstorms
Experiment 1998 is over!!
(Link to ROTATE-99)

Spencer Tornado: Violent (F4) tornado intercepted near Spencer, SD Preliminary radar est 110 m/s (246 mph) ground relative winds. Genesis and mature stages sampled. Images etc. at Spencer page

Scottsbluff Tornado: 1st ever dual-DOW volumetric scan of tornado! Click for raw images: DOW2 DOW3

Cambridge Tornado: Extremely high resolution (beamwidth 3 m) of tornado passing within 170 m of DOW3. Radar Images

Status

.
(last update: 98 June 25 11:30 MDT)

ROTATE Description
DOW home Page

Data

980426: Dual-Doppler deployment in non-tornadic thunderstorm west of Gatesville, TX. Storm had tornado warning and locals claimed there was a tornado. But this seems unlikely given our visual and radar observations. In any case, DOW2 failed to record data. Trip Map
980504: Uneventful chase to N of Lawton, TX. Moisture went away soon after we left Norman, OK. No data collected. Some system bugs detected.
980505: Storms finally broke strong cap, but were feeble. Some data collected near Denton in pre-storm boundary-layer.
980506: Intercepted two storms with mid level mesos ~40 m/s, but no low level rotation in Watonga, OK area. Storms became dominated by outflow and didn't seem vigorous enough.
980508: Intercepted non-tornadic storms in TX panhandle. Poor structure, little rotation.
980514: Intercepted non-tornadic squall line near OK/TX border S of I-40. Interesting single-Doppler data in strong shear couplet and later in outflow dominated section.
980519: Intercepted non-tornadic cells in SW NE and NE CO. Single-Doppler of limited interest.
980520: Dual-DOW intercept of F0/1 tornado in NE panhandle. Several minutes of data. Several deployments, some dual on supercell as it moved SE in NE panhandle.
980521:
980522: Dual-DOW deployment on fine line with mobile mesonets
980523:
980524: Single-DOW deployment on hook echo and rotation, possible tornado on video, will review radar data.
980529: No data collected
980530: Intercept of violent Spencer, SD tornado. Genesis and mature phase (>100 m/s) sampled in two deployments spanning 20+ minutes. Link to Spencer page
980607: Went to SE CO while supercell went up in E NM. No data collected.
980608: Collected data in two tornadoes in S KS. 2nd approached to 200m from DOW3. Limited dual-DOW in 2nd tornado with peak surface winds of 110-115 mph. Image
980609: Limited dual-DOW in coordination with sub-vortex-rfd in N TX.

For more information, contact:

Joshua Wurman

Center for Severe Weather Research

1945 Vassar Circle

Boulder, CO 80305

720-304-9100 (voice), 720-304-0900 (fax)

admin@cswr.org

Center for Severe Weather Research
1945 Vassar Circle, Boulder, CO 80305
720-304-9100 (voice), 720-304-0900 (fax) | admin@cswr.org | CSWR