User talk:Wthrman13
First off, as it appears you have not been formally welcomed to Wikipedia, well, Welcome to Wikipedia!
But down to business. I greatly appreciate your comments at Talk:Tornado. If you know of any sites which discuss tornadogenesis and the overall structure of a mature tornado, I would love to read them. I am actually quite uneasy about the article as it stands right now, even though I have re-written a large portion of it, because I have been finding way too many conflicting sources, especially on the issue of tornadogenesis. And I just realized there really isn't anything at all on the structure/wind flow inside a tornado, which seems to be important for the article.
I guess what I'm asking is for any resources that you know of which would give me definitive answers on what science knows now about tornadoes' formation and structure. Even if you could point me in the right direction, that would be awesome. I know I have some access to online meteorological journals here at school, so those might be good in addition to internet sources.
Also, as this is a collaborative effort, anything you'd want to add to the article yourself would also be much appreciated (provided that you can find sources). -Runningonbrains 11:20, 22 October 2006 (UTC)
Thanks for the welcome! I understand how you feel about the "conflicting information" about tornado structure and formation from online sources. Part of the reason for this is that we indeed don't know all that much about the inner core structure of a tornado, and there are a lot of nonscientific or superficial explanations out there. If you could give me an example of some of this conflicting information you are getting, maybe I could help you more. Most of the "state of the science" on these subjects is found in journal articles, and new theories and observations are coming in all the time. Mobile Doppler radars, such as the DOW's (Doppler on Wheels), and Dr. Howard Bluestein's research group here at the University of Oklahoma (which I have worked with in the past, mostly in driving the radar trucks, as I formally belong to another research group), have been instrumental in this effort, and literally cutting-edge research just in the last few years is coming out of observations by these groups. You can check out the DOW website at http://www.cswr.org (although the site appears to be down at the moment).
I would suggest that if you really want to get down to the scientific details of tornado formation, that you take a look at the AMS Journals and do a few searches for tornadoes and related phenomena. The journals are online at http://ams.allenpress.com If you want to check out some conference papers as well, you can look at http://ams.confex.com/ams/htsearch.cgi
I see there are already several good internet links to tornado information in the article. I would also recommend going to http://www.stormtrack.org and check out the links section. There are a whole truckload of links to various sites that deal with tornadoes. As a starting point, I would also recommend this site, http://www.spc.noaa.gov/faq/tornado/references.html , as it's a fairly good list of some of the recent scientific research.
Otherwise, regarding a definitive answer as to what is known about tornado formation, the best I can give you is that we have some promising leads and plausible theories, but I personally believe that tornadoes can actually form in a multitude of ways, and that the final "trigger" that produces a tornadic vortex where there wasn't one before in a supercell storm may be radically different for different events. That said, we have a good idea that the RFD is very much involved in at least some tornadogenesis episodes, and the basic theory is that the RFD actually helps to bring rotation aloft down to the surface while simultaneously stretching and concentrating it, possibly providing that critical link between the mesocyclone and the ground. Other theories focus on the production of horizontal, baroclinically-produced, vorticity along the leading edge of the forward flank gust front, which is subsequently tilted and stretched in the updraft. As I mentioned on the talk page, some recent observations suggest that small-scale "proto-tornado" vortices at the surface can combine into a larger vortex, which is then stretched vertically and connects with the low-level mesocyclone to produce a deep, persistent tornadic vortex (I believe the DOW group discusses this on their website, but I can't remember for sure). I will see what I can do in providing some links that more formally discuss this.
I would love to collaborate (I've already lent my name to the Meteorology Project here), but I'm relatively new and still getting used to how Wikipedia works. That's part of the reason why I've been cautious and haven't actualy edited any articles yet. I want to make sure I document my contributions properly, and collecting references and writing good edits looks like it will take some time, which I don't have a lot of right now. However, I'm excited about helping, and I daresay you will see some contributions from me on this article and others.Wthrman13 04:34, 23 October 2006 (UTC)
WikiProject Winter storms[edit]
There is a discussion started by User:Juliancolton at Wikipedia talk:WikiProject Meteorology about a proposed/possible new WikiProject called WikiProject Winter storms. Feel free to voice your opinion on the proposal.--JForget 01:12, 23 December 2007 (UTC)