E-Journal of Severe Storms Meteorology

What is the optimal placement of meteorological observations for numerical weather prediction (NWP) of Gulf of Mexico return flows in the cool season? The issue is a substantial concern for forecasters of severe storms in the Southeast, as well as of other phenomena affected by Gulf return flows. The latest EJSSM article, by Lewis et al. (2020), addresses this question by combining modern NWP concepts with a case from the GUFMEX project three decades ago. Abstract in the fi...rst comment below... https://www.ejssm.org/ojs/index.php/ejssm/article/view/180

A reminder, thanks to some discussion on another forum (and we'll put this on the website as well): EJSSM is still accepting submissions! If you are a new user wishing to submit a paper: We have had to turn off open registrations for ***new*** users for the time being, because of numerous bots and fake account registrations. While they cannot do any harm, thanks to our "Sucuri" system security on the admin/server side, all non-legitimate user accounts have been removed, and... we are investigating options for different servers and OJS hosts for next year. That will allow us to reopen self-registration and avoid hours of monthly clerical tedium of patrolling for and removing bogus accounts. Until then, if you do not have an EJSSM account and wish to get one, you can have one. Please e-mail [email protected] to get your account set up. We apologize for any inconvenience!

EJSSM mourns the passing, and celebrates the life, of longtime severe-storms forecaster and researcher Robert H. (Bob) Johns. Earlier this week, Bob passed away in his home state of Indiana, just before his 78th birthday. Bob left behind a lifelong legacy of scientific accomplishments, and an even larger one across our field in colleagues and students he mentored. Bob was heavily influenced by the Palm Sunday tornado outbreak, which struck his home state and affected his fa...mily while he was in Norman, as an undergrad. After graduating from OU's School of Meteorology in 1965, his career path brought him to the Severe Local Storms (SELS) unit of the National Severe Storms Forecast Center in Kansas City, ultimately as a longtime lead forecaster. Bob was an astute forecaster and analyst, deeply devoted to detail and very serious on shift, leaving no stone unturned in his desire for issuing the best outlooks and watches possible, and upholding SELS' reputation for excellence. Among many major events he worked, Bob proactively issued the first "Particularly Dangerous Situation" tornado watch, covering the violent tornadoes of northeast Texas and southeastern Oklahoma on 2 April 1982. Countless forecasters and researchers have gained from Bob's work. During his SELS time, Bob published definitive, seminal research on derechoes, and before that, northwest-flow severe events. He also developed a years-long series of "SELS Workshops" to train new forecasters and others in severe-storms forecasting principles. His on-shift mentorship and leading by example taught fellow forecasters at least as much as the workshops. Bob then followed his passion for severe-weather learning and teaching back to Norman after SELS became the Storm Prediction Center, and he became SPC's first Science and Operations Officer (SOO), while still filling in on the lead desk as needed. As SOO until 2001, he continued to train new forecasters, and was involved in the early development and growth of the NOAA Hazardous Weather Testbed. After Bob retired from SPC, he collaborated with a team of researchers and forecasters in a multi-year project to re-examine the Tri-State Tornado of 18 March 1925, tracing parts of the track and interviewing survivors who were children at the time. Bob lead-authored the major, definitive scientific paper on that tornado's path, published in EJSSM in 2013. [That link is given in the first comment below.] In 2007, EJSSM published a formal biographical sketch on Bob Johns, written by John Lewis and linked in the second comment below, with stories from his childhood to life as a forecaster. That paper provides unparalleled insight into the formative and influential-career years of a severe storms forecaster and researcher, with interview vignettes of him and some peers. We offer condolences to Bob's family, and all the many people he knew and influenced throughout his life. Photo courtesy of SPC.

In the newest EJSSM article, Baerg et al. analyze lowest-beam-elevation radar characteristics of 179 central Plains storms between mesocyclone development and tornadogenesis. They then analyze environmental significant tornado parameter (STP) and use a statistical model to gauge the probability of a tornado a priori. Involving both STP and rotational velocity (Vrot) does a better job at predicting tornado formation than Vrot alone, especially 15 minutes beforehand and for significant tornadoes. The Abstract is found in the first comment below. https://ejssm.org/ojs/index.php/ejssm/article/view/179

The latest EJSSM article by Grasso et al. was published a year to the date after the event. This study illustrates innovative use of operationally available GOES-16 satellite tools, to diagnose the environment leading up to the formation of supercells in the Serranias del Burro region of northern Coahuila, Mexico. Such storms often have severe-weather and flood impacts on the Texas side of the Rio Grande as well, making their near-term prediction important to NWS decision support. https://ejssm.org/ojs/index.php/ejssm/article/view/177