Proposal
Climatological changes in the environments of key meteorological parameters that affect Significant Tornado Days (SigTorDs) have been determined for two active tornado regions defined as Box α and Box β, centered, respectively, over Oklahoma and Alabama and their respective environs. The North American Regional Reanalysis data was selected for 1980–2013, providing two successive 17-year periods corresponding to the last 34 years of previous research findings that focused on the aforementioned regions. This data record also corresponds to an increasing surface air temperature trend for the continental United States. Period I (1980–1996) and Period II (1997–2013) defined the years of changing environments for the two regions studied. Environmental parameters investigated and compared to SigTorDs were surface-based convective available potential energy (CAPE), storm relative helicity (0–3 km), bulk wind difference (1,000 mb to 500 mb), and lifted condensation level (LCL). Environments have changed to fewer SigTorDs (130 to 74) in Box α from Period I to Period II, dominated by decreasing frequency of storm relative helicity and slightly increasing CAPE. Box β is characterized by more SigTorDs (94 to 119) in Period II with an environment dominated by increasing frequency of storm relative helicity and minimal change in CAPE. These results support the importance of the changes in storm relative helicity (as opposed to CAPE) in explaining the eastward shift in U.S. tornado activity.
Recommended Citation
Dicks, Ashley
(2019)
"Climatological Changes: Meteorological Parameters Affecting the Spatial Redistribution of U.S. Tornadoes,"
The Journal of Purdue Undergraduate Research:
Vol. 9, Article 2.
DOI: https://doi.org/https://doi.org/10.5703/1288284316927
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Atmospheric Sciences Commons, Climate Commons, Meteorology Commons
