Webcast

The 24th June 2021 violent tornado in southern Moravia: risk communication, damage surveying, and forecasting

Violent (F4 - F5) tornadoes are extremely rare in Europe, which makes it almost impossible for local forecasters or surveyors to build experience with such events. This makes appropriate training for dealing with such events very important. After providing a brief overview of the climatology of tornadoes across Europe, we concentrate on violent tornadoes from three perspectives. The first perspective is typical damage associated with tornadoes of such strength, as documented from a field survey of the Moravian tornado. The second perspective is a contrast of precautions needed to take in such an event compared to the standard set of precautions mentioned in the standard severe wind warnings. The third perspective is an overview of contemporary procedures on forecasting and nowcasting such events compared to the environment and evolution of the 24th June case.

 Lecture slides...