August 24, 2016 Tornado Outbreak Recap!

What was originally forecast to be a marginal risk for severe weather across parts of the Ohio Valley turned into a line of tornadic supercells! So many people keep asking the question, why did this happen? Why did the storms in Indiana and Ohio become such prolific tornado producing storms? The National Weather Service has a great information in the works concerning this particular outbreak. were Check it out HERE! It was rather interesting to read. The Storm Prediction Center originally only had a marginal risk for where the tornadic storms erupted (see image below).

Fig. 1. (above) Trees shredded from the Kokomo, IN tornado.

Photo Credit: Sarah Hand Alexander

Later that day they did upgrade the area to a slight risk for parts of Indiana but not Ohio:

The SPC I’m sure has been getting blasted from different groups.We are not here to do that. We totally understand that they are humans just like we are. The outlook above was the last outlook for the 24th which is why they never upgraded to what some may say should have been a moderate risk.

The ingredients for a tornado outbreak came together over a relatively small mesoscale area of Northern indiana and Northwest Ohio. The wind shear, instability, lifting mechanism (frontal system), vorticity and other factors all came together during the afternoon and evening.

These were where all the warnings were issued by KIWX throughout the day:

Our hearts do go out to those area that were impacted by these storms. It reminds us of the importance to take any risk of severe weather seriously. Many times people may see a marginal or slight risk and sluff it off and continue on with their day as planned. But events like this remind us to always remain on alert and be weather ready!

Lastly I want you to check out these GR2 Analyst radar image from the Woodburn, IN torado(taken from the National Weather Service). This was one of the more impressive storms from the day.

Figure 1. Four panel radar data for the Woodburn, IN Storm at 5:25 PM EDT August 24th. Reflectivity shows a doughnut hole-signifying a bounded weak echo region. This is typical of strong rotation about a vertical axis, Velocity/NROT confirms the strong rotation.

Figure 2. Four panel radar data for the Woodburn, IN Storm at 5:31 PM EDT August 24th. Velocity shows stronger rotation, and it is now tighter. CC now clearly shows a debris ball from the tornado (blues/grays). NROT is showing stronger rotation.

Figure 3. Four panel radar data for the storm in Sherwood/Defiance, Ohio at 6:14 PM EDT August 24th. Notice the prominent hook shape in the reflectivity, typical of supercells. Also note rotation via the velocity couplet and the NROT.

Figure 4. Four panel radar data for the storm near Wren/Willshire, IN at 6:14 PM EDT August 24th. Broader rotation is present as seen in the Velocity/NROT images. Notice the hook shape in the Reflectivity, typical of supercells.

For four panel images above: Left is reflectivity (Z), top right is Base Velocity (V), bottom left is Correlation Coefficient (CC), and bottom right is Normalized Rotation (NROT). To read more about radar signatures, click here. Dual pol information can be found here. Images were created using GR2Analyst.

August 24, 2016 Tornado Outbreak Recap!