The tornado in Bashkortostan: the potential of analyzing and forecasting tornado-risk conditions

Abstract

The possibility of advance tornado warning is analyzed. The tornado observed in Bashkortostan on August 29, 2014 is considered as an example. To compute meteorological fields, the WRF model with high spatiotemporal resolution is used. Indices of convective instability are calculated. The analysis of variations in indices enabled forecasting the tornado generation with the lead time up to three days and with the accuracy up to several hours in time and 200 km in space. The possibility is demonstrated of registering and nowcasting tornados by using the available software for radar data processing. The polential is discussed of the joint use of such information for developing the syslem of monitoring and forecasting of severe weather events including tornados.