Tornadoes/Mountains

[Caleb Routt]

Hey guys please help me understand this: https://ams.confex.com/ams/26SLS/webprogram/Paper211460.html

I understand sort of what a swirl ratio is but im not really sure how mountains effect the tornado's swirl ratio and how vortexes become stronger on the down hill side of a hill or mountain.

 

[Jeff Duda]

You're just about on your own with this one. Dave Lewellen is one of those super genius types that is doing things even many with a graduate degree in modeling don't easily comprehend. This is also an area where not many people other than Dr. Lewellen are actively researching. If you really want to get deep into this, I would start reading the papers referenced within the manuscript at that link, starting with the oldest references since those will likely contain more fundamental information off of which you can build your understanding. Also read the references cited within those references. Go as far back as you can. This will probably take you weeks or months, but this is also extremely complicated.