Significant, but localized, tornado outbreak hits Indiana and Ohio… (H. Michael Mogil, CCM, CBM, DMS)
On the afternoon and early evening of Aug. 24, 2016, a significant, albeit localized, tornado outbreak occurred across Indiana and Ohio. By the time the situation calmed down (meteorologically-speaking), 42 tornado reports (Fig. 1) had been logged at the Storm Prediction Center (SPC) web site. During the overnight hours, ABC-7 (Chicago) reported that Indiana State Police (ISP) had tallied between 15 to 20 (mostly minor) injuries from the storms. The ABC report quoted Captain David Bursten (ISP) as stating, “We were very, very fortunate, and you have to credit the advance warnings and people heeding those warnings.”
The focus here, however, is on the number of tornadoes that occurred. A close examination of the SPC reports listing suggests that the actual number of reported twisters will eventually be much lower.
First, within the storm report listing, it is easy to see multiple reports of the same tornado (Fig. 2). This happens in, “the heat of battle.” During that time, SPC lists all reports received because screening reports for consistency and redundancy is a low priority task.
Later on, the reports undergo an initial filtering. In this case, Fig. 3 shows that the report number had already dropped to 35 (almost a 20 percent reduction).
Next, a closer examination of the region affected (Fig. 4) shows two main tornado tracks running along a southwest to northeast axis. These tracks likely mark the path of the parent meso-cyclone that spawned the tornadoes. Hence, some of the reports may be multiple sightings of a long-tracked tornado or they may be multiple touchdowns from the same parent super-cell thunderstorm.
To be fair, some reports may not have been received in real time and other tornado tracks may be uncovered later today, as National Weather Service (NWS) teams conduct damage surveys and interview local residents. During these field investigations, the meteorologists will be able to ascertain the specific number of tornadoes, and each twister’s width, length and strength.
Regardless of the actual number of twisters, there’s little doubt that this was a significant summer-time outbreak.
© 2016 H. Michael Mogil
Originally posted 8/25/16