In previous research, Jon Davies (2004), (2006) and Jared Guyer and Jon Davies (2010) defined a cold core severe
storm environment as one occurring within 200 miles of the center of a closed
low at 500mb.
Some of their schematics and relevant statistics are summed here from Guyer and Davies 2010.
In the present work, historical cases of tornadoes in cold core environments were studied, with emphasis on central and western Kansas. Three different regimes were isolated, namely: tornadoes occurring north of an upper low, tornadoes occurring east or northeast of an upper low along a warm front occlusion, or tornadoes forming along a cold front occlusion. These are compared to the traditional warm sector dry line environment in the following schematics. Below are a list of tornado cases with cold core systems, along with the meteorological details and event maps.
References
Davies, J. M.: Tornadoes with Cold Core 500-mb Lows, Weather and Forecasting 21 (6), December 2006
Davies, J. M., 1993: Small tornadic supercells
in the central plains. Preprints, 17th Conf. on Severe Local Storms,
St. Louis, MO, Amer. Meteor. Soc., 305-309.
Boustead J.M. Synoptic Case Study of the Central Plains Mini-Supercells on 29 October 2000
Jonathan M. Davies, Wichita, KS; and J. L. Guyer 22nd Conference on Severe Local Storms
J. L. Guyer and Jonathan M. Davies, 2010: Environment Characteristics associated with Tornado events near closed cold core 500mb lows
McDonald, M., 2000: Cold core tornadoes: A forecasting technique.
Internal report, Prairie Storm Prediction Centre, Environment Canada, 7
pp.
Miller, R. C., 1972: Notes on analysis and severe-storm
forecasting procedures of the Air Force Global Weather Central, AWS
Tech. Rep. 200 (rev.), Air Weather Service, Scott AFB, IL, 190 pp.
| Date | Surface | 500mb | SFC/500mb | Assortment | H7T | H5T | Lifted Index (H7/H5) | Photos | Storm Data | Map of Events | Description |
| 1955 Apr 12 | 20Z | 15Z11 03Z12 15Z12 03Z13 | -3 | -24 | -5/-9 | Map | Several smaller tornadoes followed by a larger tornado west of Jetmore | ||||
| 1960 Feb 20 | 21Z19 03Z20 07Z20 15Z20 20Z 21Z | 12Z 19 00Z20 12Z20 00Z21 | mod. sounding | -10 | -29 | -4/-4 | Tornadoes skipped ESE from 15 miles SW of Watonga to near Okarche. 1.75" hail NW OKC | ||||
| 1961 May 13 | 21Z | 00Z13 12Z13 00Z14 | 2 | -18 | Map | Tornadoes around Lamar, CO. | |||||
| 1965 Mar 16 | 12Z 15Z 18Z 20Z 22Z | 00Z17 | -3 | -24 | -5/-9 | Map Map | Tornadoes southwest and west of Garden City. Another tornado 45 miles NW of GCK and near Lamar | ||||
| 1971 Feb 18 | 09Z 12Z 15Z 18Z 20Z | 00Z18 12Z18 00Z19 | -4 | -21 | Map | A storm generated several tornadoes from near Sublette to 15 miles northeast of Kalvesta. Another tornado occurred near Ulysses. | |||||
| 1972 Apr 26 | 20Z | 0 | -21 | Tornado moved northeast at 10 mph about 7 miles NNE of Meade at 245 pm. Tornado reported 12 NE of Meade at 3 pm | |||||||
| 1973 Apr 19 | 16Z | -2 | -21 | Map | Tornadoes in north central Kansas | ||||||
| 1973 May 6 | 21Z | 12Z5 00Z6 12Z6 00Z7 | 0 | -20 | Map | Moves southwest from 8 miles SSW of Burlington. Five injured, 1 critically. | |||||
| 1976 Mar 11 | 21Z | -4 | -22 | Tornado in southwestern Nebraska | |||||||
| 1979 Apr 10 | 22Z | 00Z11 | -2 | -19 | Tornado in Hays. Man and wife injured when mobile home overturned. Moved NNE and touched down a few times in the southeast part of Hays. | ||||||
| 1979 Apr 11 | 19Z | -5 | -24 | -4/-5 | Tornado 11 miles N of Levant in open country. Barn unroofed near Lebanon in Red Willow county NE and tornado in Buffalo county NE | ||||||
| 1984 Apr 2 | 21Z | 12Z1 00Z2 12Z2 00Z3 | -6 | -26 | Tornadoes at Rusell KS and south central KS | ||||||
| 1987 May 3 | 21Z | 12Z3 00Z4 | 21Z | 1 | -17 | Map | F2 tornado at Satanta, KS in Haskell county that moved southwest. | ||||
| 1988 May 2 | 16Z 21Z | 12Z1 00Z2 12Z2 00Z3 | 15Z | -2 | -21 | Map | Tornadoes 4.5 West and 2.5 North of Tribune destroyed outbuildings. Other tornadoes near Scott City and 10 south of Scott City. | ||||
| 1991 Apr 2 | 12Z1 00Z2 12Z2 00Z3 | ||||||||||
| 1992 Jan 7 | 21Z | 21Z | -7 | -25 | Map | Several tornadoes across southern Nebraska including F1 and F2. | |||||
| 2000 Mar 23 | 21Z | 21Z | -3 | -20 | Several tornadoes across southwestern Kansas | ||||||
| 2000 May 17 | 12Z 16Z 17Z 18Z 20Z | 00Z18 | Large tornado near Brady, NE | ||||||||
| 2005 Mar 21 | 19Z | 18Z | -4 | -21 | Tornado 130 pm 2 SE of Protection, KS and 313 pm near Byron, OK. Google search for video of Bryon tornado and search "Tornado Seen From Protection, Kansas, 21 Mar 2005" | ||||||
| 2006 Oct 26 | 20Z | 21Z | -4 | -20 | Writeup | A narrow corridor of heating occurred just N of boundary that is not reflected in the surface obs | |||||
| 2008 Nov 10 | 19Z 21Z | 21Z | -3 | -22 | photo | A narrow CAPE axis is pinched off, but not before a tornado occurrs in Stanton county | |||||
| 2009 Apr 18 | 18Z | -5 | -24 | -6/-7 | Impressive supercell tornado in Finney county KS--for video google "Kansas tornadoes April 18, 2009" | ||||||
| 2010 Mar 8 | 23Z | 00Z9 | -3 | -22 | photos | Tornadoes in western Oklahoma | |||||
| 2011 Jun 20 | 18Z | 18Z 18Z | 18Z 18Z 18Z App | The location of the tornado near Quinter, KS is denoted in the 500mb/surface feature map by a J. | |||||||
| 2014 Dec 14 | 22Z | -3 | -21 | Writeup | Tornadoes in Harper county KS | ||||||
| 2015 May 9 | 00Z10 | -19 | Tornadoes in eastern Colorado | ||||||||
| 2019 May 21 | 21Z | 0 | -18 | Writeup | Significant tornadoes in central and northeastern Kansas |
McPherson, R. A., C. Fiebrich, K. C. Crawford, R. L. Elliott, J. R. Kilby, D. L. Grimsley, J. E. Martinez, J. B. Basara, B. G. Illston, D. A. Morris, K. A. Kloesel, S. J. Stadler, A. D. Melvin, A.J. Sutherland, and H. Shrivastava, 2007: Statewide monitoring of the mesoscale environment: A technical update on the Oklahoma Mesonet. J. Atmos. Oceanic Technol., 24, 301–321. (link to article)
Brock, F. V., K. C. Crawford, R. L. Elliott, G. W. Cuperus, S. J. Stadler, H. L. Johnson, and M. D. Eilts, 1995: The Oklahoma Mesonet: A technical overview. J. Atmos. Oceanic Technol., 12, 5-19. (link to article)
