This study introduces a system that objectively assesses severe thunderstormnowcast probabilities based on hourly mesoscale data across the contiguous United States during the period from 2006 to 2014. Previous studies have evaluated the diagnostic utility of parameters in characterizing severe thunderstorm environments. In contrast, the present study merges cloud-to-ground lightning flash data...

Tornadoes can cause catastrophic destruction. Here total kinetic energy (TKE) as a metric of destruction is computed from the fraction of the tornado path experiencing various damage levels and a characteristic wind speed for each level. The fraction of the path is obtained from a model developed for the Nuclear Regulatory Commission that combines theory with empirical data. TKE is validated as...

OBJECT A large volume of patients presented to a Level I pediatric trauma center during and after a recent tornado disaster. Injuries of the central and peripheral nervous systems and the medical responses of a pediatric neurosurgical team are reviewed. METHODS The clinical courses of patients who suffered cranial, spinal, and peripheral nerve injuries due to the tornado storm are reported. T...

1 Surviving a disaster: Nurses recall Moore’s fierce tornado It had been a busy morning in the OR at Moore Medical Center in Moore, Oklahoma, on May 20. By 3 pm, the surgery patients had left the postanesthesia care unit (PACU) and gone home. PACU nurses Debra Breshears, RN, and Barbra Barrow, RN, were getting ready to leave when they heard an alert that a tornado was in Newcastle, some 12 mile...

Forecaster perceptions of major convective outbreaks include the notion that these events occur within relatively large regions of meteorological conditions favorable for the development of significant severe weather, particularly tornadoes. With recent studies developing a rigorous and scientifically repeatable method of identifying these events and distinguishing them from intermediate or mar...

A composite distribution of tangential and upward components of air flow is determined by tracing particles of debris and cloud tag movements in scaled movies of a tornado. The greatest tangential speed measured is 170 m.p.h. and the greatest upward speed derived is 150 m.p.h. A distribution of the convergent radial component of motion in the lower 600 f t . of the vortex is synthesized and use...

Form Approved OMB No. 0704-0188 Public reporting burden for this collection of information is estimated to average 1 hour per response, including the time for reviewing instructions, searching existing data sources, gathering and maintaining the data needed, and completing and reviewing this collection of information. Send comments regarding this burden estimate or any other aspect of this coll...

This study looked at how the Multiple Elevation Scanning Option for the Supplemental Adaptive Intra-Volume Low-Level Scan (MESO-SAILS) radar scanning regime performed with respect to tornadic debris signature (TDS) detection during the 2016 tornado season in the Iowa Region. Results were compared to TDS distribution research done before the implementation of MESOSAILS. Overall, it was found tha...

The Newcastle/Moore and El Reno tornadoes of May 2013 are recent reminders of the destructive power of tornadoes. A direct estimate of a tornado's power is difficult and dangerous to get. An indirect estimate on a categorical scale is available from a post-storm survery of the damage. Wind speed bounds are attached to the scale, but the scale is not adequate for analyzing trends in tornado inte...