On average, the United States experiences over 1300 tornadoes a year; as a consequence, lives are lost, hundreds are injured, and damage to property and infrastructure can run into the hundreds of millions of dollars.  Many major urban areas such as Dallas, Atlanta, and Chicago, are at risk of violent tornadoes that could inflict incredible suffering and produce catastrophic damage.  The unique violence of tornadoes relative to other severe weather hazards provides a compelling reason to continue to improve our nation’s storm prediction capacity and warning system efficiency. Come and hear about the latest understanding of how and why tornadoes form; advances expected from the recent major tornado field experiment, VORTEX2; how warnings are currently issued; methods now under development that will improve warnings, including much increased lead times; and how to enhance communications before and after severe storms. 

Maggie Walser Associate Program Officer, Board on Atmospheric Science and Climate, National Academy of Sciences

John T. Snow (PDF of presentation, 2 MB) Regents’ Professor of Meteorology and Dean Emeritus, College of Atmospheric and Geographic Sciences, the University of Oklahoma, Norman

Roger Wakimoto (PDF of presentation, 2.6 MB) Director, National Center for Atmospheric Research, Boulder, Colorado

Steven M. Zubrick (PDF of presentation, 5.8 MB) Science and Operations Officer, Weather Forecast Office, National Weather Service, National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, Sterling, VA

Linda Rowan, AGI Government Affairs Staff

Posted: July 16, 2010

Please send any comments or questions about this web site to Maeve Boland.