HUNTSVILLE, Ala. (Ivanhoe Newswire) -- It has been a devastating and deadly year for tornadoes in the United States. With more than 100 confirmed fatalities, 2008 is said to be the deadliest year for tornadoes since 1998. Now, science may be riding the wave of a new tornado forecasting tool that could help save lives.
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In northern Alabama, they’re as much a part of the weather as the summer heat. “Tornadoes are a part of life here, just like hurricanes are up in the East. You just expect them,” Mary Ann Campbell, a tornado survivor, told Ivanhoe.
In 1989, a powerful Alabama tornado killed 21 people. A tragedy many will never forget. “There were many people hurt because it just came so unexpectedly, just right there it came and nobody really had any forewarning,” Campbell said.
University of Alabama, Huntsville meteorologists Tim Coleman, Ph.D., and Kevin Knupp, Ph.D., are getting new insight into how some tornadoes form. Their research focuses on these bands called gravity waves -- formed by a sudden disturbance in the atmosphere, such as a change in the wind direction or a thunderstorm’s updraft. The waves create ripples in the atmosphere like ripples around a rock thrown into a pond.
When a gravity wave pushes down on a rotating thunderstorm, it makes the storm smaller and spin faster. Just like an ice skater spins faster as she pulls her arms closer to her body.
Dr. Coleman has created computer models, and is studying storms on radar to see how gravity waves can intensify storm rotation. If we can track these waves before they trigger tornadoes, researchers say the benefits could be huge.
“We think it’s going to double the lead time on tornado warnings, and increase the accuracy.” Dr. Knupp, told Ivanhoe.
And with powerful storms like this, every second counts.
The American Geophysical Union, the American Meteorological Society, and the American Physical Society contributed to the information contained in the TV portion of this report.
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