For more than 60 years NSSL has been out in the field, getting up close and personal with tornadoes and severe storms. The Low-Level Internal Flows in Tornadoes experiment, or “LIFT” is NSSL’s latest foray into the field to capture crucial severe weather data.
Made up of several components, LIFT seeks to better understand the structure of tornadoes and other severe weather hazards and how they form by gathering vital, yet difficult-to-obtain observations in close proximity to tornadoes and extreme hail.
Led by NSSL and in collaboration with Texas Tech University, and the Cooperative Institute for Severe and High-Impact Weather Research and Operations (CIWRO), LIFT, which kicked off in 2025, involves deploying an advanced array of mobile instruments into the paths of potentially tornadic storms. This includes truck-mounted radars, LiDARS, mobile mesonets, and uncrewed aerial systems (UAS).
Using their expertise, experience and carefully executed maneuvers, LIFT researchers deploy these tools around potentially tornadic storms at close range to measure wind speeds and directions in the lowest layers of the atmosphere, and even inside tornadoes themselves.
“These are not easy observations to get,” said Mike Coniglio, NSSL VORTEX Program Lead. “We’re trying to measure winds in the lowest few hundred feet above the ground, which requires us to get close and without hills or trees blocking the beam. Our team has built expertise over years to now do this safely and efficiently.”
LiDAR Decoding Surface Level Tornado Winds
Tornado formation remains one of the most challenging mysteries in severe weather research. While scientists understand the large-scale processes that produce supercell thunderstorms, the exact mechanisms that lead to tornado genesis (and the reasons some storms produce tornadoes while others don’t) are still not fully understood. Much of this uncertainty is due to the difficulty of observing tornadoes in their earliest stages, especially close to the ground.
NSSL’s LiDAR (Light Detection and Ranging) is a mobile instrument mounted on a heavy duty truck equipped with a hail cage. It is deployed at close range to potentially tornadic storms to capture difficult-to-obtain observations. Its primary function is to measure wind speeds and directions in the lowest layers of the atmosphere—the lowest few hundred feet above the surface—and even inside the tornadoes themselves. This is vital for understanding what the actual wind speeds are where they impact the ground.
NSSL’s LiDAR has already successfully captured the fine-scale evolution of winds just above the surface as a tornado was forming and continued to observe the wind structure after it touched down. The data collected from LiDAR helps researchers validate and refine theories about how tornadoes form and how they are structured.
HailCam pioneering hail research
Despite causing billions of dollars in damage annually, hail remains a poorly understood hazard because it is difficult to observe in real-time before it hits the ground. The HailCam, a new tool invented at NSSL, is a system of advanced cameras and lights mounted on a heavy duty pickup truck. The system’s main purpose is to capture hailstones in free fall, providing crucial, real-time data that has historically been unattainable.
The HailCam system uses two 4K cameras capable of recording at 330 frames per second. To effectively illuminate the fast-moving hailstones, researchers outfitted the truck with powerful LED lights, measured to be 30 percent brighter than the sun (per meter) on Earth’s surface. This advanced setup allows scientists to track hailstones in three dimensions to precisely calculate their size, depth, and velocity.
Since being deployed during field research, the camera has already recorded unique observations, including three-inch diameter hailstones shattering upon impact These observations are challenging traditional perspectives on hail and offering a one-of-a-kind look at the hazard. Ultimately, the NSSL’s goal is to equip forecasters with the insight required to make more accurate predictions about hail size, and potentially better inform engineering, agricultural, infrastructure and transportation practices.
UAS: The eyes in the skies
Uncrewed Aerial Systems (UAS), or drones, are helping NSSL to fill “data gaps” in the lower atmosphere. These tools allow researchers to sample the “boundary layer” which is the air closest to the ground where storms impact people. By capturing this data, researchers can record the ingredients around storms and determine what factors impact whether a storm produces severe hazards or not.
The Coptersonde, a specialized quad-copter drone, essentially acts like a reusable, controllable weather balloon. Unlike traditional balloons that drift away, the Coptersonde flies vertically in place to create an atmospheric profile. Its custom sensors measure temperature, humidity, and wind in real-time, providing a detailed look at the environment around a storm.
The science doesn’t end when the storms pass. NSSL is deploying fixed-wing UAS to conduct high-resolution, multi-spectral damage surveys. These airplane-style drones map tornado paths much faster than teams on the ground and capture data that can’t be seen with the human eye. These tools allow NSSL scientists to analyze a storm’s wind patterns and intensity even in areas where all that is impacted is vegetation. These insights are crucial to learning how winds interact with crops, infrastructure and dwellings to improve future safety guidelines.
Social Science
The National Weather Service is the best in the world at warning the public when severe weather threatens. Yet we know that a weather warning only works if people understand it and know how to react.
NSSL’s Social Science Team is studying the human element of weather. Through interviews before weather events, scientists are understanding where people get their forecast information, how they understand it, and what decisions they make using it. By collecting these interviews, our researchers can learn exactly what people saw, heard, and did prior to a warning. Do they check social media? Do they contact family members? This data helps us identify ways safety communications can be improved and be more useful for everyone.
Ultimately, social science is a bridge that connects NSSL’s technical innovations to public impacts that will contribute to a Weather-Ready Nation. Whether it’s researching how to better warn residents in mobile homes or improving communication for non-English speakers, our goal is to make sure every person has the information they need to stay safe.
