EAS News Article
Scientists Unravel Midwest Tornado Formation
Twisters not just in Kansas
National Science Foundation - November 8, 2005
Although tornadoes are usually thought of as springtime storms that develop in early evenings out of isolated weather cells, the twister that touched down in Indiana in the middle of the night this past weekend was a typical "line storm"-- one that is more likely to form late at night and in colder months.
"In the heart of Tornado Alley, twisters most often develop from relatively small 'cell' storms that look like blotches on a Doppler radar weather map," said Purdue University scientist, Robert "Jeff" Trapp whose team studied more than 3,800 tornadoes between 1998 and 2000. "Over time, these cells frequently merge into line-shaped storms that can stretch hundreds of miles. The conventional wisdom has been that line storms don't often spawn tornadoes, but we found that a significant number did." <more>
