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An environmental and polarimetric study of the 19 November 2015 supercell and multiple-vortex tornado in Marechal Cândido Rondon, southern Brazil

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Abstract

In the mid-afternoon of 19 November 2015, a large multiple-vortex tornado struck the city of Marechal Cândido Rondon (MCR) situated in southern Brazil, injuring tens of people and inflicting considerable damage to urban and rural areas of the municipality. Characteristics of the complex tornado circulation that were captured in video are described in this study, including a structure resembling a multiple-vortex mesocyclone. The tornado-producing left-moving supercell evolved within 70 km range from a dual-polarization S-band Doppler radar that allowed, for the first time in South America, to document polarimetric signatures in a supercell storm during the stage in which it contained a large visually confirmed tornado. The polarimetric signatures identified with this convective cell include the ZDR arc, the KDP foot, ZDR and KDP columns, ZDR and ρhv rings, and the tornadic debris signature, in addition to other more traditional radar signatures like the hook echo, inflow notch, cyclonic velocity couplet, and bounded weak echo region. The general synoptic- and mesoscale atmospheric conditions in which the severe storm developed displayed a nearly uncapped moist subtropical environment with high CAPE, low LCL, and intense mid- and low-level wind shear, but under weak synoptic forcing and exhibiting unimpressive lapse rates. In combination with previous studies, this synoptic–mesoscale configuration describes a typical environment for tornadic supercells in southern and southeastern Brazil.

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Data availability

The dataset generated during and/or analyzed during the current study are available from the corresponding author on reasonable request. The radar data and part of the AWSs surface observations that support the findings of this study are available from Sistema de Tecnologia e Monitoramento Ambiental do Paraná (SIMEPAR) but restrictions apply to the availability of these data, which were used under license for the current study, and so are not publicly available. Data are, however, available from the authors upon reasonable request and with permission of SIMEPAR. Other datasets generated during and/or analyzed during the current study are available from the corresponding author on reasonable request.

Notes

  1. Campaign’s acronyms stand for: The Cloud Processes of the Main Precipitation Systems in Brazil: a Contribution to Cloud Resolving Modeling and to the GPM (CHUVA); Remote Sensing of Electrification, Lightning, And Meso-scale/micro-scale Processes with Adaptive Ground Observations (RELAMPAGO).

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Acknowledgements

This study is part of the first author’s doctoral research and second author’s master of science research at the Graduate Program in Meteorology of the Universidade Federal de Santa Maria (UFSM), in Brazil, funded by the Coordenação de Aperfeiçoamento de Pessoal de Nível Superior (CAPES, in Portuguese) from the Brazilian Ministry of Education. The authors would like to thank the Sistema de Tecnologia e Monitoramento Ambiental do Paraná (SIMEPAR) for making available the radar and surface data used in this study. The authors are grateful to the anonymous reviewers for their constructive comments and suggestions that lead to the improvement of the manuscript. The authors also wish to thank the Paraná Civil Defense System for providing damage reports. Discussions with Wendell Rondinelli Farias Gomes, Maurício Ilha de Oliveria and Murilo Machado Lopes helped enrich this work.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Grupo de Modelagem Atmosférica, Departamento de Física, Universidade Federal de Santa Maria, Avenida Roraima 1000, Santa Maria, RS, 97105-900, Brazil

    Vanessa Ferreira, Vitor Goede & Ernani de Lima Nascimento

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  1. Vanessa Ferreira
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  2. Vitor Goede
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  3. Ernani de Lima Nascimento
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Correspondence to Vanessa Ferreira.

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Responsible Editor: Xinxin Xie.

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Ferreira, V., Goede, V. & de Lima Nascimento, E. An environmental and polarimetric study of the 19 November 2015 supercell and multiple-vortex tornado in Marechal Cândido Rondon, southern Brazil. Meteorol Atmos Phys 134, 82 (2022). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00703-022-00922-5

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