Research on tornadoes in 2024

During 2024, tornadoes and tornado outbreaks were extensively researched by meteorologists and engineers across the world. Some research and publications included: the effects of "Tornado Brain", the detection of tornadic infrasound, several mobile radar observations of tornadoes, including the measurement of tornadic winds over , the idea of tornado alley shifting eastward, and many other things.
Timeline
January
In January 2024, researchers with Colorado State University’s Department of Atmospheric Science, published an analysis and database of 74 tornadoes which occurred in South America. According to the researchers, this was the first time tornadic environments was studied across South America.
February
In February 2024, researchers with the University of Tennessee and University of Missouri published an academic study about how survivors from the 2011 Joplin tornado recover from "Tornado Brain", a new term for the PTSD of tornado survivors.
During the same month, researchers with Auburn University (AU), Florida International University (FIU), Pennsylvania State University (Penn State), Louisiana State University (LSU), University of South Alabama, University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign (UIUC), University of Kentucky, and CoreLogic, published an academic case study on how hurricane-resistant houses performed during the . Researchers with the Tornado and Storm Research Organisation (TORRO), Met Office, and Jersey Met, also published a case study on the storm which produced an intense tornado and a hailstorm on the island nation of Jersey in November 2023.
On February 8, meteorologist and storm chaser Reed Timmer, along with Mark Simpson, Sean Schofer, Curtis Brooks, published a paper about the design of and information about a new meteorological rocket probe which can be launched into tornadoes. The researchers launched one of these rocket probes into the . The probe recorded winds of during its first rotation around the tornado and also recorded a pressure drop of inside the tornado. The probe also recorded that the tornado's updraft was . The tornado threw the probe , where the researchers were able to recover it.
March
In March 2024, Anthony W. Lyza, Matthew D. Flournoy, and A. Addison Alford, researchers with the National Severe Storms Laboratory, Storm Prediction Center, CIWRO, and the University of Oklahoma's School of Meteorology, published a paper where they stated, ">20% of supercell tornadoes may be capable of producing EF4-EF5 damage" and that "the legacy F-scale wind speed ranges may ultimately provide a better estimate of peak tornado wind speeds at 10-15 m AGL for strong-violent tornadoes and a better damage-based intensity rating for all tornadoes". In their conclusion, the researchers also posed the question: "Does a 0-5 ranking scale make sense given the current state of understanding of the low-level tornado wind profile and engineering of structures?"
April
In April 2024, the European Severe Storms Laboratory and the Czech Hydrometeorological Institute, along with seven other European organizations, published a detailed damage survey and analysis on the 2021 South Moravia tornado using the International Fujita scale. Also in April, Timothy A. Coleman, with the University of Alabama in Huntsville (UAH), Richard L. Thompson with the NOAA Storm Prediction Center, and Dr. Gregory S. Forbes, a retired meteorologist from The Weather Channel published an article to the Journal of Applied Meteorology and Climatology stating, "it is apparent that the perceived shift in tornado activity from the traditional tornado alley in the Great Plains to the eastern U.S. is indeed real". On April 26, a Doppler on Wheels (DOW) mobile radar truck measured 1-second wind speeds of approximately at a height of ~ as a tornado passed near Harlan, Iowa, causing widespread destruction. On April 30, strong tornado near Hollister, Oklahoma passed close to a NEXRAD radar. The radar measured a tornado vortex signature with a gate-to-gate of about above the surface.
In mid-April, the National Severe Storms Laboratory along with Texas Tech University begin the Low-Level Internal Flows in Tornadoes (LIFT) Project, with the goal to collect data from the “damage layer” of tornadoes; from ground level to above the surface. The LIFT project deployed 11 times between April-June, gathering data from “numerous successful intercepts”.
On April 30, the 118th United States House of Representatives passed the Weather Research and Forecasting Innovation Reauthorization Act of 2023, also known as the Weather Act Reauthorization Act of 2023, sending it to the United States Senate. The bill is set to provide authority for the Verification of the Origins of Rotation in Tornadoes Experiment (VORTEX-USA) by the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration.
May
In May 2024, researchers with the University of Western Ontario's Northern Tornado Project and engineering department conducted a case study on the , the , and the . In their case study, the researchers assessed extreme damage caused by the tornado which is ineligible for ratings on the Canadian Enhanced Fujita scale or the American Enhanced Fujita scale (EF-scale). In their analysis, it was determined all three tornadoes caused damage well-beyond their assigned EF-scale ratings, with all three tornadoes having EF5-intensity winds; Alonsa with , Scarth with , and Didsbury with . At the end of the analysis, the researchers stated, "the lofting wind speeds given by this model are much higher than the rating based on the ground survey EF-scale assessment. This may be due to the current tendency to bias strong EF5 tornadoes lower than reality, or limitations in conventional EF-scale assessments". Also during May, Timothy J. Dolney with Pennsylvania State University, published a new analysis of the 1985 United States-Canada tornado outbreak, specifically focusing on the state of Pennsylvania and Tornado Watch #211 issued by the National Weather Service for the tornado outbreak.
Also in May, Doctor Bin Liang with the University of Mississippi published a paper on the results of a field research project on tornadoes. During the project, Liang was able to determine “that tornadoes emit dominant low-frequency infrasound between 0.5−1.2 Hertz”, after examining tornadic and non-tornadic supercells.
On May 23, a Doppler on Wheels observed and recorded data of near Duke, Oklahoma.
Greenfield tornado
On May 21, a violent EF4 tornado struck the town of Greenfield, Iowa. As the tornado moved through the town, a Doppler on Wheels measured winds of at least >, "possibly as high as " at above the surface. Pieter Groenemeijer, the director of the European Severe Storms Laboratory, noted that "on the IF-scale, 250 mph measured below 60 m above ground level is IF4 on the IF-scale, 290 mph is IF5." The peak wind speed estimate was revised to between and , a figure "among the highest wind speeds ever determined using DOW data", on June 22, 2024.
A few weeks after the tornado, the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration released details about an experimental warning system which was tested before and during the tornado. This new warning system, named Warn-on-Forecast System (WoFS), was created by the Hazardous Weather Testbed housed in the National Weather Center in Norman, Oklahoma. During the experiment and test, the WoFS gave a high indication of “near-ground rotation” in and around the area of Greenfield, Iowa between 2-4 p.m. According to the press release, 75-minutes later, the violent EF4 tornado touched down. Scientists with the National Severe Storms Laboratory were able to give local National Weather Service forecasters a 75-minute lead time for the tornado.
June
In June 2024, the first part of research from the PERiLS Project was published through the American Meteorological Society. Also in June, researchers with the University of Miami’s CIMAS’s, the Atlantic Oceanographic and Meteorological Laboratory, the University of California, the Jet Propulsion Laboratory, and Mississippi State University published a paper regarding how a prolonged and unusual Pacific-North American pattern contributed to the formation of the tornado outbreak of December 10-11, 2021 and the infamous Quad-State Supercell. Researchers with the University of Illinois also published a paper on various regional and seasonal trends of tornadoes across the United States.
On June 3, a struck the town of oThongathi (Tongaat), in South Africa. The South African Weather Service conducted a nine-day case study on the tornado.
July
In July 2024, scientists and historians from the University of Maryland, College Park, Storm Prediction Center, National Weather Service Norman, Oklahoma, Stanford University, and the University of Oklahoma's School of Meteorology, Center for Analysis and Prediction of Storms, and Advanced Radar Research Center, published information on a new database, called Tornado Archive, which contains information on more than 100,000 tornadoes. Also in July, Jennifer M. First with the University of Missouri, published a paper examining the aftermath of the , focusing on the mental health issues of survivors and the gender-based recovery difference.
Later in the month, Engineers with Pennsylvania State University published a paper in the Journal of Structural Engineering to document how historic buildings in downtown Mayfield, Kentucky survived the 2021 Western Kentucky tornado, which caused EF4 damage throughout the city.
On July 11, Independent United States Senator Kyrsten Sinema, along with other Democratic and Republican Senators, introduced the Border Weather Resiliency Act of 2024 to the United States Senate. On July 22, United States Congressman Randy Feenstra along with three other congressman introduced a bill (H.R.9081) to the United States House of Representatives to provide tax relief to people affected by severe storms, flooding, and tornadoes.
On July 19, the hit disaster-film Twisters released, which included accurate scientific theories on ways to potentially disrupt tornadoes.
On July 30, Andrew Mercer, Kenneth Swan, and Adonte Knight with Mississippi State University published the first quantitative definition for how to define a tornado outbreak. The researchers also analyzed intensity and frequency trends of tornado outbreaks between 1960 and 2021. In their analysis, it was determined that between 1960-2021, the United States experienced 6,723 individual tornado outbreaks and that there is also a downward trend of 0.25 tornado outbreaks per year.
August
In August 2024, Jordan Tweedie with the University of Oklahoma, published a paper on how the lower atmospheric boundary layer affected the supercell which produced the violent 2023 Rolling Fork-Silver City EF4 tornado. Tweedie stated the data collection for the research came from the PERiLS Project. Later in the month, researchers with Central Michigan University, the University of Nebraska-Lincoln, the National Weather Service and the Polish published an investigation into "230 significant tornadoes, 246 significant hail events, and 191 null cases across the United States" and how cell mergers, boundaries, other supercells, along with other meteorological phenomenon interact and what impacts do they have on tornadoes and significant hail. On August 27, Sarah L. Horton with the Tornado and Storm Research Organisation published a case study on tornadoes which occurred during Storm Ciarán in 2023. On August 30, meteorologist Trey Greenwood published a meteorological analysis on the . Researchers with the University of Alabama also published a paper on how tornadoes devastated the tsuga canadensis, commonly known as eastern hemlock, in part of Alabama.
On August 14, researchers with the Pressure Acoustics Research Inside Tornadoes EXperiment (PACRITEX) published research on some of the first pressure measurements and video observations inside three EF2 tornadoes taken by in-situ tornado probes.
*The first deployment of the probe was inside the . Within two minutes, the pressure dropped from a reading of 985 hPa outside of the tornado to 929 hPa inside the tornado. During those two minutes, the probe recorded three individual spikes, indicating it most likely sampled suction vorticies.
Later in the month, researchers with the ERATOSTHENES Centre of Excellence, the Cyprus University of Technology, the Harz University of Applied Studies, the , and the Cyprus Department of Meteorology, published a case study on the . In their study, the researchers published about how the Atmospheric Remote Sensing Observatory (CARO), located away from the tornado in the city of Limassol, recorded a vertical wind speed of as well as an instantaneous rate of rain from the storm of .
Mobile radar observations

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