Anyone here photograph Hurricane-Spawned Tornadoes?

[Bridget Beddow]

storms

Do the Austrailian storms see the NW quadrant as the outer band?

 

[Bridget Beddow]

East Timor

Thomas, I know this is off the topic but you don't have an email link and I have a family member traveling to East Timor soon - will you please email me if it is okay for me to ask you a couple of questions about that area?

 

[Thomas Loades]

Carrie, you're right. It's the NE quadrant that's the bad one in the Northern hemisphere. But I think it says in Significant Tornadoes (that has just about all I can find on hurricane-spawned tornadoes) that the NW quadrant is where they all are anyway. In the Southern hemisphere, the outer bands depend on which coast you're on — eastern Queensland and Northern Territory its the SW quadrant (which is the bad one here), and NW Western Australia, W Northern Territory, and W Queensland, it's the SE quadrant. — And on second thought, it's probably the SE quad which is the bad one. Now I've confused myself — damn Coriolis force!! Oh, it's all the "dangerous semicircle" anyway, isn't it?

Oh, and while I've thought of it, there's a short film sequence of a hurricane-spawned tornado (shot by Jim Leonard, no less) from hurricane Agnes (1972), and a video of one of the GIlbert tornadoes near Del Rio, TX in Tornado Video Classics 1.

 

[Glen Romine]

NE quadrant is the most common - but tornadoes can occur and have been documented to occur in all quadrants. The NE quadrant often shows up in stats because of the tendency for hurricanes to curve in a clockwise fashion (circling around the Bermuda high) prior to landfall. The inflow from off the warm water then is often into the NE section ahead of the hurricane, whereas the western side of the hurricane has air approaching from land, so it is generally more stable. It is within the outer rainbands (often 200 km from the eye) that mini-supercells are favored, generally along to just right of the hurricane track. With intense hurricanes, an increased tendency has been noted for a different type of tornado (in addition to the one above), that tends to form in the NW quadrant of the hurricane, but these types of tornadoes are ussually weak and short-lived. The tendency for hurricanes making landfall in TX to have significant tornado potential has been attributed to dry air entrainment off the MX plateau, I think Lon Curtis recently had a paper in WAF on this. Possible that Eugene McCaul would have some pics of hurricane spawned tornadoes, he's certainly seen lots of landfalling hurricanes and is an expert in hurricane spawned tornadoes.

While I've never chased hurricane tornadoes, I don't think it would be that bad with a good nowcaster (little chance to 'go visual' in the hurricane environment) - as the rainbands tend to not move all that fast, whereas the cells within the bands do. If you found an active band, you could probably stick with it for some time and just hope a cell is tornadic as it passes by (over open country of course).

Glen

 

[Bridget Beddow]

tornadoes

Thank you, Glen - that's why I wish I would have started studying the weather a long time ago!!

 

[Larry J. Kosch]

Different Diections

It would depend on the hurricane' direction. If it was coming W towards FL at a speed of 20 mph with sustained winds of 120 mph, the NW quadrant of the hurricane would pose the greatest dangers. Winds would be up to 140+ mph and the outer bands would have the greatest thunderstorm and tornado threats.

On the other hand, if it was heading N towards New Orleans at the same fore-mentioned speeds, the NE quadrant would be your greatest threats.

Of course, if you were right in the middle of one, it doesn't matter which way the winds are coming from!!

 

[Bridget Beddow]

Wind direction

The only time the direction of wind has mattered to me is when I'm opening windows to allow a little breeze through the house. I open the windows on the opposite side of the house from the direction of the wind, and then change sides when the direction changes - not because of pressure, but just to have a nice gust inside and be able to listen to what's going on outside.

 

[Dan Robinson]

Visibility in Isabel's enviromnent was low all day on the day of landfall. In fact, cloud bases, types and features were not visible at all except when the eye passed overhead. The whole day it was just a diffuse whiteout in the sky, like a fog - you couldn't even tell where the cloud base was, if there was one.

You might have been able to see cloud features in the outer rain bands, but they moved through overnight prior to landfall.

 

[Bridget Beddow]

Isabel

I had no problems with visibility, but then on the other hand, I was on the South side of the eyewall so I think we just did not see as much rain as you did, Dan. What part of Virginia were you located in during Isabel?

 

[Dan Robinson]

We started out in Virginia Beach early in the morning, and drifted south to the Williamston-Winton-Windsor areas by midday.

 

[Bridget Beddow]

Isabel

I kind of wish I would have rode out more during all the hurricanes I've been through, but after going through Dennis, I'm a little hesitant about doing that. I'm not that far from an inlet also and I haven't seen what a direct hit in this area would bring as far as the surge, and I don't want to end up stranded somewhere with my dogs left to fend for themselves at home.

 

[Glen Romine]

Re: Different Diections

It would depend on the hurricane' direction.

Good point Larry - I forgot to mention that all of this quadrant talk is hurricane motion relative - not cardinal directions. So, as you mentioned, a storm moving W has its storm-relative NE quadrant NW of the eye of the storm.

Glen

 

[Bill Hark]

Chasing hurricane-spawned tornadoes is difficult but not impossible. I have seen visibility in land falling hurricanes range from near zero to several miles (under a cloud deck with scattered rain shafts). I wouldn't bother bother driving hundreds of miles but would consider an outing close to home. (I live in central Virginia).

I believe Jim Leonard is one of the few who has caught a hurricane spawned tornado. Below is a link to Lon Curtis' article on this phenomena.

http://www.vvm.com/%7Ecurtis/AMSTCTor.html

I think there are a couple nice articles in the Stormtrack archives.

Bill hark
http://www.harkphoto.com

 

[Bridget Beddow]

Dennis

I have never minded an outing close to home, but after my experience with Dennis my whole viewpoint changed. My ex's yard was right on a river directly attached by the Pamlico inlet by 1-2 miles. For all the hurricanes he had experienced in his house, the water barely came into the yard. With Dennis, we went out for about 1 hour, checking on his family, friends and workplace. By the time we made it back to the house, the water had risen to the back deck and we could barely make out the posts from his pier. By the time the water was done rising, we had to put his freezer in his garage on two empty 5 gallon buckets of tide (hahahaha - never knew how resourceful I could be until that night). It was the first time in 50 years that flooding had occurred in that area. And last year for Isabel, I talked to him and he said although the eye did not bring the surge to the Pamlico inlet, another river dumped the contents of the surge into the Pamlico once again and they got flooded just like Dennis AFTER the hurricane passed through. I guess it was just 2 oddities back to back, but it was just not something that was expected. That's why I'm a little hesitant about driving out. I would like to see a hurricane-spawned tornado once though in a vicinity that would not damage anything or anyone around me.

 

[Thomas Loades]

I have seen visibility in land falling hurricanes range from near zero to several miles (under a cloud deck with scattered rain shafts).
http://www.harkphoto.com

What would enable such good visibility to occur in hurricanes? I would have thought that the rain would be steady and heavy under almost the entire storm, save for the fringes.