Associations of Jet Streams with Tornado Outbreaks in the North America

Igor G. Zurbenko, Mingzeng Sun^*

Department of Epidemiology and Biostatistics, State University of New York at Albany, New York, USA.

DOI: 10.4236/acs.2015.53026                

Abstract

Jet streams, a current of fast winds located about seven miles up near the tropopause, are major weather driving factors in the mid-latitudes. Using the Modern-Era Retrospective Analysis for Research and Applications (MERRA) reanalysis data resources for the period 1979 to 1988, we defined the latitudinal distribution of daily wind maxima by month, and analyzed latitudinal distribution of the highest daily wind speed at the selected longitude in the 19^th week of the year. We showed the typical diving pattern of jet stream over Central America in spring. We found that latitudinal distribution of daily wind maxima was concurrently oscillated with latitudinal distribution of tornado outbreaks in April, May and June. KZ filter smoothed latitudinal distribution of highest daily wind speed on tornado days showed a substantial increase in number of daily wind maxima over tornado alley region, compared to that on non-tornado-days.

Keywords

Jet Stream, Tornado, KZ Filter, Specific Humidity

Conflicts of Interest

The authors declare no conflicts of interest.

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