However, those studies used resolutions too coarse to resolve tornadoes or tornado-like circulations and were therefore not able to study the sensitivity of tornadogenesis to microphysics. Snook and Xue have now conducted simulations of severe tornadic thunderstorms using a grid of 100-meter (328-feet) spacing.

They find that when the sizes of rain and hail drops are large, weaker cold pools due to reduced evaporative cooling/melting over smaller geographic regions result. Such weak cold pools are found to produce conditions that enhance low-level rotation.

The authors' simulations show that strong, sustained vertical updrafts are positioned near and above the low-level circulation centers, providing strong dynamic lifting and vertical stretching to the air at the lower levels, which favors the creation of tornadoes.

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Journal Reference:

1. Nathan Snook. Effects of microphysical drop size distribution on tornadogenesis in supercell thunderstorms. Geophysical Research Letters, DOI: 10.1029/2008GL035866