Date of Award
2023
Document Type
Thesis
Degree Name
Master of Science (MS)
Department
Atmospheric Science
Committee Chair
Kevin Knupp
Committee Member
Larry Carey
Committee Member
Undaysankar Nair
Subject(s)
Tornadoes--Ala.bama, Severe storms--Ala.bama, Gravity waves
Abstract
On 19 March 2018, a tornado outbreak affected Alabama. During this event a supercell that moved over northern Alabama into the Verification of the Origins of Rotation in Tornadoes EXperiment-Southeast (VORTEX-SE) mesoscale network produced several tornadoes, one of which was high-end EF-2. Preliminary data shows that this supercell storm formed in a buoyantly stable environment. Surface observations of pressure rises indicate the passage of an atmospheric bore. Development of the bore caused the buoyantly stable environment to become buoyantly unstable and led the storm to survive in an environment in which it would otherwise would have been difficult to survive in. The supercell was sampled by three different radars, the University of Alabama in Huntsville (UAH) Advanced Radar for Meteorological and Operational Research (ARMOR), the Oklahoma University-Shared Mobile Atmospheric and Teaching Radar (SR3), and the National Weather Service WSR-88D Radar KHTX. A multiple-Doppler radar analysis is utilized to study the tornado. These multiple-Doppler analyses are used in this study to relate storm attributes. Sounding data and surface data were used to diagnose the atmospheric bore’s location relative to the parent storm over the storm’s life cycle.
Recommended Citation
Graham, Michael, "A case study of the 19 March 2018 northern Alabama tornadic supercell and its relation to an atmospheric bore" (2023). Theses. 501.
https://louis.uah.edu/uah-theses/501