Tornado Intensity Estimation: Past, Present, and Future

Edwards, Roger; LaDue, James G.; Ferree, John T.; Scharfenberg, Kevin A.; Maier, Chris A.; Coulbourne, William L.

doi:10.1175/bams-d-11-00006.1

Cited by 159 publications

(83 citation statements)

References 22 publications

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“…Questions such as these are commonly asked of meteorologists and climatologists, but, to date, the current literature indicates a gap in the means to quantify the severity of a winter season to allow for objective comparison. Previous research has provided a means to quantify the intensity of hurricanes (Saffir-Simpson scale; Simpson 1974), tornadoes (Fujita and enhanced Fujita scales;Fujita 1971;Edwards et al 2013), droughts (Drought Monitor; Svoboda et al 2002), and winter storms (Zielinski 2002; Northeast snowfall impact scale; Kocin and Uccellini 2004;Cerruti and Decker 2011). The use of scaling allows comparison of event characteristics, as well as impacts that either are explicitly included as an index factor or are compared against the background of the scales that are more meteorological or measurable in nature.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

The Accumulated Winter Season Severity Index (AWSSI)

Boustead

Hilberg

Shulski

et al. 2015

Journal of Applied Meteorology and Climatology

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The character of a winter can be defined by many of its features, including temperature averages and extremes, snowfall totals, snow depth, and the duration between onset and cessation of winter-weather conditions. The accumulated winter season severity index incorporates these elements into one site-specific value that defines the severity of a particular winter, especially when examined in the context of climatological values for that site. Thresholds of temperature, snowfall, and snow depth are assigned points that accumulate through the defined winter season; a parallel index uses temperature and precipitation to provide a snow proxy where snow data are unavailable or unreliable. The results can be analyzed like any other meteorological parameter to examine relationships to teleconnection patterns, determine trends, and create sector-specific applications, as well as to analyze an ongoing winter or any individual winter season to place its severity in context.

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Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

The Accumulated Winter Season Severity Index (AWSSI)

Boustead

Hilberg

Shulski

et al. 2015

Journal of Applied Meteorology and Climatology

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

show abstract

“…These ratings have been used for the study of tornado climatology across the United States and the correlation of environmental parameters with the occurrence of tornadoes of particular intensity (e.g., Kerr and Darkow 1996;Brooks and Doswell 2001;Brooks et al 2003; Thompson et al 2003Thompson et al , 2007Brooks 2004;Mead and Thompson 2011;Garner 2012); the EF scale ratings are of interest to meteorologists as well as to those in many other industries (e.g., Womble and Smith 2009;Womble et al 2009Womble et al , 2011Thampi et al 2011;Kuligowski et al 2013). For a general discussion on the history, development, advantages, and limitations of the EF scale, readers are referred to Doswell et al (2009) and Edwards et al (2013).…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Some Considerations for the Use of High-Resolution Mobile Radar Data in Tornado Intensity Determination

Snyder

Bluestein

2014

Weather and Forecasting

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The increasing number of mobile Doppler radars used in field campaigns across the central United States has led to an increasing number of high-resolution radar datasets of strong tornadoes. There are more than a few instances in which the radar-measured radial velocities substantially exceed the estimated wind speeds associated with the enhanced Fujita (EF) scale rating assigned to a particular tornado. It is imperative, however, to understand what the radar data represent if one wants to compare radar observations to damagebased EF-scale estimates. A violent tornado observed by the rapid-scan, X-band, polarimetric mobile radar (RaXPol) on 31 May 2013 contained radar-relative radial velocities exceeding 135 m s 21 in rural areas essentially devoid of structures from which damage ratings can be made. This case, along with others, serves as an excellent example of some of the complications that arise when comparing radar-estimated velocities with the criteria established in the EF scale. In addition, it is shown that data from polarimetric radars should reduce the variance of radar-relative radial velocity estimates within the debris field compared to data from single-polarization radars. Polarimetric radars can also be used to retrieve differential velocity, large magnitudes of which are spatially associated with large spectrum widths inside the polarimetric tornado debris signature in several datasets of intense tornadoes sampled by RaXPol.

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“…ncdc.noaa.gov/stormevents/), maintained by the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration's National Weather Service (NWS). It is one of the most comprehensive and primary sources of long-term records on hydrological hazards in the United States with detailed records on the induced economic cost and casualty [40][41][42] and have been used in many studies [41,[43][44][45][46][47]. The records of hydrological hazards may be provided by or gathered from sources outside the NWS, such as the media, law enforcement and/or other government agencies, emergency managers, private companies and individuals.…”

Section: Methodsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Recent Changes in the Occurrences and Damages of Floods and Droughts in the United States

Zhou

Leng

Peng

2018

Water

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Abstract:In this study, we compile and analyse 136,920 records of flood and 50,967 records of drought from a survey-based database to investigate recent changes in annual occurrence and economical cost in the United States. Results show that an average of 6520 floods has occurred per year during 1996-2016, with annual mean economic losses up to 3986 million US dollars, while 2427 drought events/year are recorded causing an average loss of 1684 million US dollars per year. Importantly, we found there is no evident changing tendency in annual economic damages of floods and droughts, despite an upward trend in their annual occurrences. This could be partly explained by changes in regional vulnerabilities, as indirectly reflected by the ratio of damaging events to total number of events experienced and the average damage per event. Spatially, vulnerability to droughts has decreased in most of the country, while increased vulnerability to floods is observed in a number of states. Despite limitations from the records and incomplete characterization of vulnerability, this study has great implications for targeted mitigation and adaptation, through identifying the regions that are most vulnerable to floods and droughts respectively and highlighting the contrasting patterns in regional vulnerability to floods and droughts.

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Tornado Intensity Estimation: Past, Present, and Future

Abstract: The enhanced Fujita scale, devised to rate wind damage more precisely, will need accountability and flexibility to keep pace with advances in mapping, documentation, and the growing understanding of structural responses to airflow.

Cited by 159 publications

References 22 publications

The Accumulated Winter Season Severity Index (AWSSI)

The Accumulated Winter Season Severity Index (AWSSI)

Some Considerations for the Use of High-Resolution Mobile Radar Data in Tornado Intensity Determination

Recent Changes in the Occurrences and Damages of Floods and Droughts in the United States

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