Manhattan, KS Tornado

A long-lived supercell plowed across north-central Kansas and produced several tornadoes along its track. One of the supercell's tornadoes struck Manhattan, home of Kansas State University, around 11:00 p.m. this evening. The base reflectivity and storm relative velocity images I saved show a classic tornado signature. In fact, the base reflectivity (scanned at 0.5 degrees) shows a possible debris signature associated with the tornado. The high reflectivity (66 dBZ) that I circled is a significant energy return, but the VIL product at the same time only returned 16 kg m^-2. Furthermore, the echo was only 1,400 feet above the ground, and there was no hail core suspended above this signature. Therefore, it's quite possible this could be some type of debris that was sampled by the radar.


The storm relative velocity sampled at the same time also shows a very tight, cyclonic circulation at the approximate location of the high reflectivity return. The green colors indicate motion toward the radar, and the red/pink colors indicate motion away from the radar; the Topeka radar is southeast of this image. The inner green color is a 33 knot inbound velocity, and the inner pink is a 58 knot outbound velocity; added together, that is a 91 knot (105 mph) total circulation -- quite impressive for about 1,400 feet above the ground.