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The rear flank downdraft (RFD) is a region of dry air wrapping around the back of a mesocyclone in a supercell thunderstorm. [1] These areas of descending air are thought to be essential in the production of many supercellular tornadoes. Large hail within the rear flank downdraft often shows up brightly as a hook on weather radar images ...
The rear flank downdraft of a supercell is a very complex and not yet fully understood feature. RFDs mainly occur within classic and HP supercells although RFDs have been observed within LP supercells. The RFD of a supercell is believed to play a large part in tornadogenesis by tightening existing rotation within the surface mesocyclone.
The forward flank downdraft (FFD) also seems to be warmer within tornadic supercells than in non-tornadic supercells. [ 7 ] Many envision a top-down process in which a mid-level mesocyclone first forms and couples with a low-level mesocyclone or tornadocyclone, with a vortex then forming below the cloud base and becoming a concentrated vortex ...
The tornado weakened to EF1 strength and shrunk in size as it crossed E1300 Road, snapping and uprooting trees and ripping a roof off an outbuilding. Homes sustained minor roof damage. Despite being far from the tornado, a single-wide manufactured home along E1295 Road sustained severe damage, likely caused by rear flank downdraft winds. [6]
For a tornado to form in this manner, a rear-flank downdraft enters the center of the mesocyclone from the back. Cold air, being denser than warm air, is able to penetrate the updraft. The combination of the updraft and downdraft completes the development of a tornado. Tornadoes that form in this method are often violent and can last over an ...
The TWISTEX crew and the vehicles on equipped with mobile mesonets. TWISTEX (a backronym for Tactical Weather-Instrumented Sampling in/near Tornadoes Experiment) was a tornado research experiment that was founded and led by Tim Samaras of Bennett, Colorado, US, that ended in the deaths of three researchers in the 2013 El Reno tornado.
A rotating wall cloud with rear flank downdraft clear slot evident to its left rear. Storm spotters are trained to discern whether a storm seen from a distance is a supercell. [8] They typically look to its rear, the main region of updraft and inflow. [8]
Tornadoes, which form within stronger thunderstorms, grow until they reach their mature stage. This is when the rear flank downdraft of the thunderstorm, fed by rain-cooled air, begins to wrap around the tornado, cutting off the inflow of warm air which previously fed the tornado. [3] Inflow can originate from mid-levels of the atmosphere too.