Contact: Dane Konop FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
(301) 713-2483 7/11/95
A team of government-supported scientists has completed a series of scientific intercepts of tornadic storms that should revolutionize our understanding of tornadoes and dramatically improve tornado forecasts and warnings, the Commerce Department's National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration announced today.
Government and university scientists intercepted and studied 10 tornadoes close up in the southern and central plains states during the 1994 and 1995 tornado seasons from April 1 to June 15, during the Verification of the Origin of Rotation in Tornadoes Experiment, or VORTEX.
VORTEX scientists collected a rich data set of observations documenting the entire life cycle of a tornado, information that will allow scientists to make important new insights into how tornadoes form, develop into full-fledged tornadoes, then dissipate.
One tornado intercepted by VORTEX, the Dimmitt, Texas, tornado of June 2, 1995, is now the most thoroughly observed tornado in history. (See note to editors to request detailed information on the tornadoes intercepted and the observations.)
VORTEX director Erik Rasmussen said, "VORTEX has been a huge success so far, but only the data collection phase of the experiment is complete. The real work of analyzing and interpreting the data is just beginning.
"Right now we're securing the data. Next we'll begin making the data accessible in a quality-assured form on the Internet. Then data analysis begins in earnest. Important new findings into how tornadoes form and behave should begin appearing in the formal scientific literature over the next two years.
"In addition to important new insights into the conditions that lead to the formation of tornadoes, those processes that maintain tornadoes, and those that lead to their demise, we believe we will also make important discoveries about the factors that prevent supercell storms from producing tornadoes when we would expect them to form, as well as factors that produce tornadoes in non-supercell storms," Rasmussen said.
In a typical intercept, a small armada of 18-20 specially equipped chase cars and vans were deployed to intercept and study severe storms that were expected to generate tornadoes, based on general NOAA severe storm guidance. The chase vehicles were equipped with sophisticated meteorological instruments, still and video cameras, and two-way communications and guided by overflights by NOAA's P-3 storm chaser aircraft, the NCAR Electra, and the entire suite of National Weather Service forecast products. Chases often ranged over hundreds of miles and covered part of a day to several consecutive days on the road.
The largest tornado field experiment ever staged, VORTEX was based at NOAA's National Severe Storms Laboratory in Norman, Okla., and jointly sponsored by NOAA and the National Science Foundation.
NOAA Administrator D. James Baker said, "While the field stage of VORTEX has only just ended, we are confident that countless lives will be saved in future storms because of what VORTEX researchers learned about tornadoes.
"This experiment could not have happened without the extraordinary dedication of participating scientists and meteorology students, and the federal funding through NOAA and the National Science Foundation. It's a prime example of a synergy of government and university scientists and of tax dollars being well spent for the direct benefit of the public."
Approximately 20 scientists and 100 graduate and undergraduate students from NSSL, NSF, the National Center for Atmospheric Research, Environment Canada, and 10 universities participated in the experiment.
The university participants included Oklahoma University, Texas A&M University, Texas Tech University, New Mexico Tech University, UCLA, the University of Nebraska, the University of Illinois, the University of Mississippi, the South Dakota School of Mines and Technology, and Southwest Missouri State University.
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Note to Editors: To request an annotated listing of the 10 tornadoes intercepted, more detailed information on VORTEX observations, a color photograph of the VORTEX "radar on wheels," or a 3/4-inch video copy of tornado highlights, call Dane Konop at (301) 713-2483 or fax your request to (301) 713-1460.