E-Journal of Severe Storms Meteorology

03/18/2025

TRI-STATE TORNADO: 18 March 1925

One hundred years ago today, the deadliest tornado in U.S. history traveled from southeastern Missouri across southern Illinois and into Indiana, killing around 695 people.

How long was its path and lifespan, to the best extent determinable? Where did it strike, when, and with what effects? What other tornadoes occurred from the same supercell and overall weather system? What were some of the last direct interview accounts of that disastrous day from people who survived it as youth? Perhaps most mysteriously, what was the meteorology of the event, to as much detail as could be surmised from limited data in the 1920s, forensic techniques and technology of this century?

A large team of university researchers and NOAA meteorologists (both still active and recently retired at the time) sought answers to these questions and more, and in 2013, published two extensive, seminal papers in EJSSM, loaded with their findings. These represent the most complete understanding still available of the Tri-State event:

1. Meteorological Analyses of the Tri-State Tornado Event of March 1925 by Maddox et al.

2. The 1925 Tri-State Tornado Damage Path and Associated Storm System by Johns et al.

Since this was a two-paper effort, please find the links to each one's EJSSM page, with a copy of the abstract, in the first two comments below.

02/11/2025

EJSSM mourns the passing of peerless severe-storms scientist Charles A. (Chuck) Doswell III, on 18 January.

Chuck's story as a scientist is rich, vast and deep, following his Bachelor of Science degree from University of Wisconsin-Madison and his Masters and Ph. D. from the University of Oklahoma in the 1970s. Professionally, he worked at the National Severe Storms Forecast Center's Techniques Development Unit, NCAR in Boulder, NSSL, and CIMMS (now CIWRO), and was an adjunct professor at OU.

In the latter role, Chuck developed a challenging, long-running, graduate-level course, Advanced Forecast Techniques, to bridge the heretofore often detached worlds of theoretical understanding and operational forecasting. Perhaps more importantly, he taught his students and scientific peers how to think critically in the framework of scientific principles. This included by lectures, discussions and example, including through his rigorous reviews for EJSSM and many other journals. Chuck not only was a great scientist in his own right, but made those around him better.

With well over 100 peer-reviewed publications combined as lead- and co-author, editing of the AMS Meteorological Monograph on severe local storms, research collaborations with other scientists worldwide for decades, academic advisement and mentorship of countless many graduate students, and the friendships he nurtured with so many, Chuck's influence on meteorology is hard to overstate. Working with his longtime friend and scientific and storm-observing colleague Al Moller, he contributed his own excellent storm photography and deep understanding of supercell processes to spotter-training efforts of the NWS.

Chuck had a bluntly outspoken, larger-than-life personality, a powerful, plainspoken eloquence, and was in high demand as a speaker. He had a strong "BS filter" and could, by his own description, be a "curmudgeon." But in reality, Chuck had a heart of gold. He was a devoted husband, father and grandfather, a longtime Boy Scout leader and volunteer, and served civic causes throughout his adulthood.

Chuck was one of EJSSM's founders in 2006, and a continuous board member from then onward, laying a great deal of the scientific and idealistic foundation for the journal. Though Chuck is irreplaceable, his influence will live on in meteorology for generations to come.

08/17/2024

Following up on their 2022 work, the field-research team of Dean et al. (2024) document pressure changes and video clues near and within three EF2-rated tornadoes from 2016-2019. This sampling included the tornadic inflow, corner-flow and core regions. Design and specifications of the instrument packages are provided as well.

The journal link is given below; Abstract is in the first comment.

Pressure Measurements and Video Observations Near and Inside Three EF2 Tornadoes Authors Lanny Dean PACRITEX David Moran DTN, PACRITEX Randy Hicks PACRITEX Pat Winn DOI: https://doi.org/10.55599/ejssm.v19i2.91 Keywords: instrumentation, In-situ observations, vortex dynamics, tornadoes, mesocyclones,...

05/22/2024

In the latest EJSSM article, "A Mesonet-Based Climatology Of Severe Convective Winds in West Texas," Gunter and Long evaluate thunderstorm winds in terms of frequency and intensity across 15 years in the core part of the West Texas Mesonet domain, the Lubbock NWS County Warning Area, and compare nearby mesonet sites to a couple standard NWS (ASOS, AWOS) stations. The Caprock Escarpment appears to exert measurable influences on thunderstorm winds. More in the abstract (first comment below) and manuscript (available via this link):

A Mesonet-Based Climatology Of Severe Convective Winds in West Texas Authors William Scott Gunter University of Louisville Quint M. Long University of Louisville DOI: https://doi.org/10.55599/ejssm.v19i1.92 Keywords: Severe Storms, Wind Gust, Mesonet, Climatology, In-situ observations Abstract Multi...