From: Harvey Newstrom (mail@HarveyNewstrom.com)
Date: Sat May 17 2003 - 20:38:01 MDT
Mike Lorrey wrote,
> The vast majority of twisters are F1 tornados, the very weakest form.
> These are generally only detectable, outside of direct observation, via
> Doppler radar.
I think you missed my point. These twisters aren't "tornados" until they
touch the ground. I don't think radar can tell how low the lowest end of
the twister is, or if it contacted the earth. As I recall from the Weather
Channel, a site visit verifies that the tornado occurred. I don't think
Doppler sightings are used for any tornado statistics. Maybe Doppler can
warn us where tornadoes might occur, but it still takes human sightings to
confirm a tornado as official.
I can concede some twisters in former years might have been missed more
likely than in current years, but not a ten-fold increase in 50 years.
That's just too many for me to by. I think it is commonly accepted that
there really are more tornadoes in recent decades. We also are seeing
massive storms with dozens of tornadoes sweeping across wide plains in the
last decade or two. I really doubt that this is the same as is was in the
1950's and '60s and it was just that nobody noticed.
-- Harvey Newstrom, CISSP, IAM, GSEC, IBMCP <www.HarveyNewstrom.com> <www.Newstaff.com>
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