Tulsa - Another Tornado Warning Miss
A surprise tornado caused chaos across the Tulsa area Wednesday night in a storm that earlier in the day had only a “limited tornado threat.” The National Weather Service issued the first tornado warning at 7:19 p.m. — with no previous tornado watch in effect — and within minutes of the warning said a tornado was on the ground three miles southwest of Catoosa moving at 50 mph.
Damage on 18th floor of a high-rise building Tulsa World |
Based on the news photography I have seen, this tornado will be rated at least EF-2 -- another significant tornado without advance warning.
Here is a map of the approximate path of the tornado's rotation.
The Doppler wind radar data showed that a tornado warning should have been issued at 7:11pm for what meteorologists call a "QLCS tornado."
Reds are winds away from the radar. Greens are winds toward the radar. |
By 7:15pm, there was unquestionably a tornado on the ground as evidenced by the Doppler radar's "correlation coefficient" lowering -- which is the radar detecting lofted debris.
Therefore, it is difficult to understand why a tornado warning was not issued until 7:20 -- nine minutes after the radar indicated sufficient rotation for a warning.
I also don't understand why the warning merely says "capable" of producing a tornado when the radar clearly indicated a tornado was doing damage in a densely populated area. As the World's article indicates, there was no tornado watch.
The "significant tornado parameter" one hour before the tornado formed was sufficient for a tornado as indicated by the value of 1. The forecast, made at 1pm, predicted a value of 1.3.
A significant tornado parameter value of 1 for Tulsa as of 6pm |
This is another of an increasingly long series of tornadoes without advance warnings in 2021. I do not understand why the NWS is not addressing this problem. Accordingly, the U.S. needs a National Disaster Review Board.
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