Temps and Dewpoints on days with F-4/EF-4 and F-5/E-F5 Tornadoes

[Paul Knightley]

Does anyone have any estimated values for SREH on the afternoon of the May 31st, 2013, El Reno tornado? I know that MLCAPE values were in excess of 4000J/Kg, with surface dewpoints close to 24C/75F - this puts it on the right hand site of the graph above. I know the surface flow backed ahead of the storm. I guess >200 J/Kg might have been possible, and even higher when the storm accelerated.

 

[Jeff Duda]

The SPC mesoanalysis archive saves all the images on the CONUS scale.

 

[Rob H]

The SPC mesoanalysis archive saves all the images on the CONUS scale.

A good example of why ESRH is more useful than SRH - 0-1km SRH was 50 m2/s2 at the time and really understated the tornadic potential.

 

[Tim Supinie]

Does anyone have any estimated values for SREH on the afternoon of the May 31st, 2013, El Reno tornado? I know that MLCAPE values were in excess of 4000J/Kg, with surface dewpoints close to 24C/75F - this puts it on the right hand site of the graph above. I know the surface flow backed ahead of the storm. I guess >200 J/Kg might have been possible, and even higher when the storm accelerated.

http://www.spc.noaa.gov/exper/archive/events/20130531/soundings/13060100_SNDG/OUN.gif

The observed OUN sounding from that evening says 0-2 km SRH was ~400 m^2/s^2 (and the storm was probably actually feeling lot more than that, given that it deviated from the mean wind more than the Bunker's motion vector would suggest). The observed MLCAPE was ~3400 J/kg because the sounding was truncated. If we guess at adding 1000 J/kg to account for the truncation, that would put it just to the right of the Greensburg dot on Jon Davies's chart.

The storm deviation observation makes me wonder: what would these charts look like if observed storm motions were used to calculate SRH rather than Bunker's motion estimates?

However, we're off topic. As others have already stated, only looking at surface temperature and dewpoint simplifies the problem too much to be of any use.

 

[Rob H]

http://www.spc.noaa.gov/exper/archive/events/20130531/soundings/13060100_SNDG/OUN.gif
The storm deviation observation makes me wonder: what would these charts look like if observed storm motions were used to calculate SRH rather than Bunker's motion estimates?

I'm actually working on adding that into the application I'm working on. I'm surprised I haven't seen it before.