Storm index number??

[Cory Schuller]

I see several chasers and I also seen it last night on "Storm Chasers", where they talked about an index number for the development of storms. It is a rating of 1-10 with 10 being the highest area of concern. What is this number and how is it calculated???

Cory

 

[rdale]

Haven't watched it yet but I'm guess that's the Baron Tornado Index (BTI) which has had some great success. One of ST's members developed it. http://www.baronservices.com

 

[Bob Hartig]

What you saw was, as I recall, just two different chasers' informal assessments of the system's potential. Kinda like guys and gals rate each other's appearance--"Wow, she's a ten!" "Mmm, he's a six at best." Josh gave the setup a seven; Reed gave it a ten. Since both of them offered a rating, I've a hunch it was for the sake of the program. But there's no actual index of the kind you're referring to, at least not that I've ever seen. Sigtors and such, yes, but those weren't what the conversation was about.

 

[Cory Schuller]

I do agree after I re-watched "Storm Chasers" that they were just talking on a scale on what they thought the storms would be. I've over heard some local meteorologist talk about this "Index" but I'm just not sure what they were talking about. I didn't get a chance to go ask them what they were meaning by that. I thought maybe somebody on the board uses this. Maybe it is nothing of importance.

Cory

 

[rdale]

If you heard a TV meteorologist mention it - that's the BTI. Refer to my post above. http://www.baronservices.com/news_pdf/BTI_release.pdf

 

[Dennis Sherrod]

It appears they were just speaking in general terms like Cory and Bob said of what they felt the likelyhood was.

 

[Steve Sherrod]

HI Dennis

Hey Dennis I saw your name and had to reply. I just joined the sight but I have been an amatuer storm chaser most of my life. Hope to talk more thru the year. I live in Wichita Ks. a.k.a. Tornado Alley!!

 

[Bill Tabor]

There is an SPC MesoAnalysis tool with products that measure the environment for the potential strength of supercells / tornadoes.
http://www.spc.noaa.gov/exper/mesoanalysis/frames.php?sector=6
http://www.spc.noaa.gov/exper/mesoanalysis/

Look under the heading Composite Indices on the left for the products Supercell Composite, Sig (Significant) Tornado

For severe storm environment potential see Craven/Brooks SigSvr (Significant Severe)

There are others listed as well. If you click on one of these parameters on the left in the top of the display pane on the right, right next to the title of the parameter you will see 'description'. If you click that you will get the definition.

Here is a link to an article discussing many of the parameters and how they are derived: http://w1.spc.woc.noaa.gov/exper/mesoanalysis/help/begin.html

 

[L.B. LaForce]

Not to hijack a thread here or anything, but I was looking at the baron site, and noticed they have a new service called OMNI. Any stations use it, or will any use it in the near future? It looks pretty amazing!

 

[rdale]

It is nice... It's basically "Google Earth on steroids" and allows for a lot of interaction and customization. I've not seen anyone use it on-air, I played with a late beta at their last conference.