TITLE:
Associations of Jet Streams with Tornado Outbreaks in the North America
AUTHORS:
Igor G. Zurbenko, Mingzeng Sun
KEYWORDS:
Jet Stream, Tornado, KZ Filter, Specific Humidity
JOURNAL NAME:
Atmospheric and Climate Sciences,
Vol.5 No.3,
July
27,
2015
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 19th 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.