STORM TRACK: July 31, 1983 (Volume 6 Issue 5)

Storm Chase '83 is now over for most of us. Contrary to the expectations for a very active tornado spring, April and May were comparatively quiet through the central plains, with a few notable exceptions such as the Houston area storms. Chasers seemed to take turns as different systems presented themselves. Several cars of Norman chasers, with Lou Wicker, joined up with the Editor in photographing at least three May 13 tornadoes from Estelline, Texas to Vinson, Oklahoma (See ST, Vol. 6, No. 5); Jim Leonard and Barbara White just missed these vortices but "aced" two high contrast twisters on May 17 south of Medicine Lodge, Kansas, while the Editor was pursuing a wall cloud northeast of there; and on May 20, Tim Marshall and Roy Britt were all over a multi-tornadic storm near and northeast of Plainview, Texas, which everyone else missed while working storms further east. Something for everyone! Nonetheless, a few considered mid-May as a somewhat spartan period, and Jim Leonard said that he felt lucky to have taken what pictures he did. However, the season picked up again in June (Gene Moore photographed several in Kansas) and may still yield a substantial number of tornadoes for the year.

In reviewing some old notes from Tim Marshall on the mile wide tornado near Pampa on May 19, 1982, I came across an interesting observation. One damage report was received on a frame building in its path, which only lost, a roof and part of a wall rather than being virtually flattened as might be expected. In other words, the size of this tornado was not coincident with its severity. Our discussion at that time led to the thesis that there may be a maximum threshold of vortex diameter, beyond which average wind speeds do not continue increasing, but begin to decrease, or where suction vortices become less likely. Studies may indicate a bell shaped curve that shows increasing winds for tornadoes up to a half mile wide but decreasing winds thereafter, with increasing swirl diameters. In short, the monster vortex may only be an anemic windbag.

Keith Brewster responded to the last Commentary Section in ST. "... you may have heard of a recently released Dept. of Commerce report, which states that eventually all observations vations could be made automated or remotely sensed, and that the primary purpose of the National Weather Service should be severe weather warning and general public forecasting. An obvious contradiction -- any severe weather forecaster knows the importance of seemingly insignificant remarks such as TCU W, FEW CU and of course- CB DSIPTD! Of course, don't expect your congressman to recognize this."