Greensburg Tornado was caught with mobile radar

[Rob Herman]

Researchers from the University of Oklahoma left Norman with a mobile radar unit from the University of Massachusetts on May 4th. Thanks to a flat tire, they ended up just east of Protection.

Rest of story:
http://www.kake.com/home/headlines/10952296.html#

 

[Jerry Prsha]

Thanks for sharing that article! What a beast that one was.. Or should I say "beasts?"

 

[Joel Wright]

Very interesting. Why are we just now hearing about this? Or did I miss it previously?

 

[Martin Kucera]

I remember the unit parked on the north side of the road, just east of Protection. I was about to give up on the storm when I overheard them discussing possible tornadoes. They were scanning the storm like they ment business . Great article.

 

[Willie Dines]

Very interesting. Why are we just now hearing about this? Or did I miss it previously?

I'm wondering that as well lol

Willie

 

[Joel Wright]

Does anyone know if Bluestein's radar is similar to the DOW featured on the Discovery Channel series? Or is it different?

It says Bluestein's radar could scan vertically, but I thought the one Wurman had with on the series (DOW 3) had that capability as well...

 

[Dick McGowan]

I saw a truck with a small radar dome in the back just east of Sitka on the south side of the highway, minutes before the first brief cone tornado that formed across that highway. We were wondering who that was, as it didn't look anything like the DOW's we're used to seeing. Good to know that they intercepted that, pretty crazy they measured winds between 250-300 mph!

 

[Mikey Gribble]

I know Bluestein's radar used to be on a flat-bed truck. I remember Jeff Snyder saying something about the type of radar they were using. I'm pretty sure he chases with him every now and then. I want to say it was a phased array radar or something like that, but I don't know the first thing about radars so that's probably wrong. I just remember that it was supposed to be a new technology for public use (I'm sure it probably came from the military). I've seen Bluestein out a few times and I'm pretty sure he still is using a white flat-bed truck.

 

[scott r currens]

http://www.mesoscale.ws/pictures/instruments/
Scroll down the page to see the UMASS radars.

 

[Zac Flamig]

They were actually scanning the storm before it produced the tornadoes from my understanding. He actually did a presentation on the data he collected already but I missed it.

Heres the paper where he talks about both the radar and the data he collected that day http://ams.confex.com/ams/pdfpapers/122770.pdf.

If you're lucky and ask nicely you can probably convince Robin to answer any other questions you might have. IIRC she was the driver of the UMass. radar that day.

 

[Jeff Snyder]

Does anyone know if Bluestein's radar is similar to the DOW featured on the Discovery Channel series? Or is it different?

It says Bluestein's radar could scan vertically, but I thought the one Wurman had with on the series (DOW 3) had that capability as well...

It was quite a serendipitous interception, that's for sure. As Scott currently linked to, the radar was developed and is maintained by the University of Massachusetts - Amherst, and Howie's been using it for several years. This year, we had two mobile radars on the Plains -- an X-band dual-pol radar and an X-band phased array (a W-band radar was down for repairs this spring). On May 4th, unfortunately, we hadn't received the phased array yet, so we only had the Xband dual-pol radar. Regardless, a humorously coincidental flat tire resulted in a tire repair in Protection, KS (the tire went flat south of Bucklin, KS, while en route to a target farther north, all before the first storm went up SW of Arnett, OK). The tire was fixed in just enough time to start scanning just outside Protection. The data collected are quite interesting. Unfortunately, IIRC, a battery problem meant that the radar couldn't be used for the entire duration, so the data obtained were collected during the early to mid stage of the tornado (before it hit Greensburg). I'll ask Howie if I can post a radar image. EDIT: Some images are contained in the conference preprints to which Zac Flamming linked in the previous page.

Mikey -- I worked with the X-band mobile phased array this year (along with Jana Houser -- not a ST member), while Robin Tanamachi (and Mike French) worked with the X-band dual-pol radar. The X-band dual-pol radar is the one mounted on a converted pickup, similar to (but larger than) a W-band that's also been used in the past. The mobile phased array is on a much larger truck, and it took a good 10 minutes to setup each time we stopped for deployment. I know the ProSensing and CIRPAS folks have good plans to speed up the "setup" process, so that should help make it even more mobile.

Robin is the resident PhD student in our group, and she was also along that day, so perhaps she can share some commentary. Dan Dawson and Gabe Garfield also chased with us and helped out this year, though I think both of them were with me in my private vehicle on the Greensburg day. We still need to come up with some sort of acronym for the project...

 

[Mikey Gribble]

Just a suggestion Jeff, but if you're looking for an acronym still, I'd like to suggest FART....
Field Atmospheric Radar Team
I'm pretty sure that acronym isn't taken yet by another field research crew. Sorry, I just couldn't resist that.

 

[Bob Schafer]

Call yourselves the Stormtrack Hook Intercept Team.

"...the dual polarization that captured this new look at the Greensburg tornado is a planned upgrade to all National Weather Service Doppler radars in Kakeland"

So, just exactly how many NWS radars ARE there in Kakeland?

 

[Mikey Gribble]

Or you could keep it simple and call it...
Tornado Intercept Team

 

[Brett Adair]

Or you could keep it simple and call it...
Tornado Intercept Team

Yeah.....call it T.I.T. LOL