28 November 2012
Midwest Style Tornado Hits Southern Italy
Posted by Dan Satterfield
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=a-wkjemVZJ4
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The storm that flooded St. Mark’s Square in Venice with a meter of water today also produced a tornado. A real Great Plains style tornado at that.
Here is an image from the Meteosat showing the storm. If the budget cuts do not get it, the U.S. will have an ultra modern weather satellite like this in a few years.
Image courtesy Meteosat and PSU E-Wall.
The upper level charts show a negative tilted deep trough to the west, a classic super-cell set-up. A strong surface low and warm front were moving across the southern parts of Italy as well today.
Click for higher resolution. From Penn State's Weather E-Wall. A negative tilt trough is one in which a line drawn through the base is slanted backwards. This maximizes the low level wind shear.
Dan Satterfield has worked as an on air meteorologist for 32 years in Oklahoma, Florida and Alabama. Forecasting weather is Dan's job, but all of Earth Science is his passion. This journal is where Dan writes about things he has too little time for on air. Dan blogs about peer-reviewed Earth science for Junior High level audiences and up.
This was not an Italian tornado. At no point did it say, “Eh, whatsa matta you?!”
It also didn’t ask for any Capocollo.