Mission Summary 4/19


VORTEX INFORMATION STATEMENT

On 19 April, the VORTEX armada operated in NW and north-central Texas. Convection repeatedly fired along the dryline. Based on WSR-88D information, it appeared that storms rotated strongly just as they crossed the warm front, which extended from near Lubbock to Mineral Wells to south of DFW. Only one or two storms persisted with supercell structure in the cold air north of the warm front. In the late evening, a squall line developed along the advancing dryline/cold front. At the intersection of the warm front and dryline, a storm with a mesocyclone formed (near dusk) and persisted as it moved across the Dallas/Ft. Worth metro area, producing some weak tornadoes.
The VORTEX armada did not intecept any storms. We were not interested in the storms that moved north of the warm front into the stratus and cold air; these rarely produce tornadoes. As the situation became clearer during the afternoon, the decision was made to try to target storms that had been in existence in the warm sector for 1-2 hours prior to reaching the warm front. The only storm meeting this criterion did not survive long enough before it was overtaken by the squall line. Thus, the armada intercepted zero tornadoes out of the zero significant tornadoes available to be intercepted.

Erik Rasmussen
Jerry Straka

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