case study of the may 7, 2002 tornadic supercell outbreak kathryn saussy san francisco state...
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Case Study of the May 7, 2002 Tornadic Supercell
Outbreak
Kathryn Saussy
San Francisco State University
Department of Geosciences
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500 mb chartMay 7, 2002 12 UTC
Strong WSW winds flow over the Great Plains;
a longwave trough approaches Arizona.
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500 mb ChartMay 8, 2002 00 UTC
Strong SW winds continue to flow over the Great Plains;
a trough approaches New Mexico, and pushes closer to the Great Plains region.
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Surface AnalysisMay 8, 2002 00 UTC
A trough extends over OK;
SSE winds, which are nearly perpendicular to the 500 mb flow, are nearly present over OK and KS - which pave the road to excellent storm relative helicity;
High dewpoints are in the upper 60s to lower 70s, helping to create the perfect recipe for deep convection: Buoyancy, CAPE, and lifting.
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00 UTC Soundings:Topeka, KS
and Norman, OKMiller Type I (“loaded gun”);
Excellent shear environments (strong differences between 500 mb and surface winds) for conversion streamwise vorticity into rotating updrafts;
Storm motions are NE;
Anticyclonic loops in both hodographs show large areas of helicity.
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Norman, OK
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Topeka, KS
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Radar Reflectivity at 2235 UTC
Note the fan-shaped echo of the storm as the system moves across Oklahoma.
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Radar Reflectivity 2305 UTC
A beautiful echo; look for the signature “hook.” Also, the storm is beginning to split. (The fan-shape now looks like a heart.)
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Visible Satellite Images at 2145 and 2315 UTC
The explosion of the supercell is clearly evident on both of these visible satellite images. The tornado (seen as a TVS on radar) is also brilliantly clear.