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Supercell Tornadogenesis Over Complex Terrain: the Great Barrington, Massachusetts, Tornado on 29 May 1995

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Supercell Tornadogenesis Over Complex Terrain: the Great Barrington, Massachusetts, Tornado on 29 May 1995 VOLUME 21 WEATHER AND FORECASTING DECEMBER 2006 Supercell Tornadogenesis over Complex Terrain: The Great Barrington, Massachusetts, Tornado on 29 May 1995 LANCE F. BOSART Department of Earth and Atmospheric Sciences, University at Albany, State University of New York, Albany, New York ANTON SEIMON Earth Institute of Columbia University, Lamont-Doherty Earth Observatory, Palisades, New York KENNETH D. LAPENTA National Weather Service Forecast Office, and Center for Environmental Sciences and Technology Management, University at Albany, State University of New York, Albany, New York MICHAEL J. DICKINSON* Department of Earth and Atmospheric Sciences, University at Albany, State University of New York, Albany, New York (Manuscript received 13 December 2005, in final form 6 April 2006) ABSTRACT The process of tornadogenesis in complex terrain environments has received relatively little research attention to date. Here, an analysis is presented of a long-lived supercell that became tornadic over com- plex terrain in association with the Great Barrington, Massachusetts (GBR), F3 tornado of 29 May 1995. The GBR tornado left an almost continuous 50–1000-m-wide damage path that stretched for ϳ50 km. The apparent rarity of significant tornadogenesis in rough terrain from a supercell well documented in operational Doppler radar motivated this case study. Doppler radar observations showed that the GBR supercell possessed a midlevel mesocyclone well prior to tornadogenesis and that the mesocyclone inten- sified as it crossed the eastern edge of New York’s Catskill Mountains and entered the Hudson Valley. Tornadogenesis occurred as the GBR mesocyclone crossed the Hudson Valley and ascended the highlands to the east. Subsequently, the mesocyclone weakened as it approached the Taconic Range in western Massachusetts before it intensified again as it moved downslope into the Housatonic Valley where it was associated with the GBR tornado. Because of a dearth of significant mesoscale surface and upper-air observations, the conclusions and inferences presented in this paper must be necessarily limited and specu- lative. What data were available suggested that on a day when the mesoscale environment was supportive of supercell thunderstorm development, according to conventional indicators of wind shear and atmo- spheric stability, topographic configurations and the associated channeling of ambient low-level flows conspired to create local orographic enhancements to tornadogenesis potential. Numerical experimentation is needed to address these inferences, speculative points, and related issues raised by the GBR case study. * Current affiliation: Accurate Environmental Forecasting, Inc., Narragansett, Rhode Island. Corresponding author address: Dr. Lance Bosart, Dept. of Earth and Atmospheric Sciences, University at Albany, State University of New York, 1400 Washington Ave., Albany, NY 12222. E-mail: [email protected] © 2006 American Meteorological Society 897 Unauthenticated | Downloaded 10/01/21 10:57 PM UTC WAF957 898 WEATHER AND FORECASTING VOLUME 21 1. Introduction Supercell thunderstorms, the convective storm-type associated with most significant tornadoes, occur pref- erentially over the relatively flat terrain of North America east of the Rockies. In the Rockies and Ap- palachians of North America, the European Alps, and other midlatitude regions characterized by complex to- pography, reported tornadoes are much less common. Intriguing questions are whether the fewer reported mountain tornadoes reflect the potential for mountain- ous terrain to disrupt low-level flows and preclude tor- nadogenesis in instances that might otherwise yield tor- nadoes over flat terrain and/or whether significant mountain tornadoes are relatively underreported be- cause fewer people live in the mountains, damage sur- veys are more difficult to conduct, and fewer structures can be damaged. Although generally not explicitly stated in studies on tornado climatology, anecdotal evi- dence is that rough terrain is viewed as an inhibitor of tornado occurrence in mountain environments. On oc- casion, however, large, intense, and long-lived torna- does have been documented to form from supercells moving over regions characterized by high topographic relief. An event of this type is the focus of this study. On 29 May 1995, a supercell thunderstorm traveling a corridor across prominent topographic landforms in the northeastern United States produced an almost continuous 50-km-track tornado that caused damage of up to F3 intensity (Grazulis 1997; Fig. 1). The damage swath ranged up to 1 km in width, with severe forest destruction and structural damage reported. Maximum impact was felt in Great Barrington, Massachusetts (GBR), where widespread structural damage occurred and three people were killed when a vehicle was thrown more than 500 m by the tornado (NCDC 1995). In its size, intensity, longevity, and, most signifi- cantly, its occurrence over complex terrain, the GBR tornado represents a rare, but not unique, event. On FIG. 1. (a) Station and county identifier map. Counties men- occasion, tornadic storms form over relatively flat ter- tioned in the text are located by lowercase letters and listed in the rain and move into hilly or mountainous regions with legend. Encircled crosses denote the track of the GBR supercell their tornadic circulations remaining intact. Examples from 2002 to 2326 UTC 29 May 1995 at approximately 20-min intervals. The box denotes the domain in (b). (b) Station identi- include the long-track Adirondack tornado in New fiers and key physiographic features as shown. Terrain height (m) York State in 1845 (Ludlam 1970); the Shinnston, West is shaded according to the color bar. The box denotes the domain Virginia, tornado that killed 103 people during an out- in (c). (c) Close-up view of principal terrain features, counties, and break on 23 June 1944 (Brotzman 1944; Grazulis 1993); tornado track (white line). Terrain (m) is shaded as in (b). and several tornadoes of the 31 May 1985 outbreak that moved from eastern Ohio into the hilly terrain of north- strong/violent intensity (F2–F5). Fujita (1989) analyzed west Pennsylvania (NCDC 1985; Farrell and Carlson an exceptionally large and intense (F4) tornado in for- 1989). ested mountainous terrain in the Teton Wilderness of Of particular relevance to the present study are other northwest Wyoming on 21 July 1987. This tornado trav- instances when supercells both form and travel across eled 39 km, crossed the North American continental mountainous terrain and produce tornadoes that attain divide at an elevation of 3070 m above mean sea level Unauthenticated | Downloaded 10/01/21 10:57 PM UTC DECEMBER 2006 B O S A R T E T A L . 899 (MSL), and destroyed an estimated 1 million trees 10 July 1989 a large, long-lived supercell crossed the across a damage swath covering 61 km2. Cases reported entire breadth of the Appalachians in New York and elsewhere within the Rockies show that the Teton tor- Connecticut, producing long damage tracks from both nado was not unique for the region. Three significant tornadoes and severe mesocyclonic winds with wide- (ՆF2) tornadoes have been documented in the Big spread devastation and two associated fatalities (Gra- Horn Mountains, also in Wyoming (Evans and Johns zulis 1993; Seimon and Fitzjarrald 1994). On 31 May 1996), including a 13-km-track F3 tornado that de- 1998, New York’s Hudson Valley witnessed an out- stroyed forest at approximately 3000 m MSL on 21 July break of several supercells that produced a series of 1993. A few weeks later another F3 tornado occurred in large, intense tornadoes, including one that reached F3 the Uinta Mountains in northeastern Utah on an inter- intensity in hilly terrain at Mechanicville close to the mittent 28-km path that reached a maximum altitude of foothills of the Adirondack Mountains (NCDC 1998; 3260 m (NCDC 1993). Some lesser-intensity events in LaPenta et al. 2005). the Rocky Mountain region are also noteworthy. To It is noteworthy that all of the cases listed above our knowledge, the highest altitude that a tornado has featured large, long-lived, and intense tornadoes that been documented is a ϳ2-km-track tornado of unde- occurred over hilly terrain amid landforms exhibiting termined intensity that was observed at approximately topographic relief Ն150 m at some point along their 3475 m elevation on Longs Peak (4345 m) in the Col- track. Some characteristics of these selected mountain- orado Rockies on 17 August 1984 (Nuss 1986). A tor- area tornadoes recorded in the United States from 1985 nado that caused forest damage at 2700 m MSL near to 1998 that formed in complex terrain and went on to Divide, Colorado, on 12 July 1996 was produced by a produce damage of F3-F4 intensity are compared in thunderstorm that displayed relatively conventional su- Table 1. Elevation differences, rather than absolute el- percell structure on a Weather Surveillance Radar-1988 evations, are used to discriminate between what we Doppler (WSR-88D), providing confirmation that tor- consider to be mountain versus nonmountain tornado nadic supercells are not restricted to low-elevation, events. This filter is therefore inclusive to Appalachian low-relief terrain environments (Bluestein 2000). tornadoes in the eastern United States while it excludes The GBR tornado occurred over a topographic en- intense tornadoes that occur over the midwestern high vironment of comparable relief to the Rocky Mountain plains region, which, although elevated above
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