Tornado Development in N LUB CWA – ProbSVR & NMDA Performance

When the reported tornado developed in Swisher County in the northern portion of the LUB CWA at 5:12 PM, it was preceded by increases to the ProbTor and AZShear products by several minutes. Initially, I believed these algorithms to be picking up on sidelobes in the lowest levels of the radar scans, as noisy velocity data was being recorded in areas where reflectivity values were small. You can see these artifacts in and around areas of purple haze in the animation below. However, these products verified their jumps with a brief tornado touching down. It was reported to look relatively strong while on the ground with multiple vorticies visible at the time. It was short-lived, however, seeming to dissipate relatively quickly after touchdown.

The NMDA also did well picking up on this circulation before tornadogenesis, but I had some questions regarding the data quality in the low-level detection prior to the tornado.

#ProtectAndDissipate