A case study of the Princeton, Massachusetts 'Father's Day' tornado of June 17th, 2001.

摘要

On June 17th, 2001, Worcester County, Massachusetts suffered its first tornado in over ten years when a long-lived severe thunderstorm produced an F1 scale tornado in the town of Princeton. The storm also produced two strong microbursts before diminishing as it moved off to the northeast. The storm caught forecasters by surprise as it developed in a tropical environment just to the north of the remnants of tropical storm Allison. Though the storm was tracked for more than three hours before producing the tornado, it rapidly intensified when it arrived over the Princeton area. No severe thunderstorm or tornado warnings were issued during the life cycle of the storm.; Using surface and upper air data, a mesoscale model run, satellite imagery, and copious amounts of radar data a case study of this storm was produced with the goal of understanding its life-cycle from initial discovery through dissipation with particular attention paid to the rapid intensification just prior to the tornado.