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Investigation into the Formation, Structure, and Evolution of an EF4 Tornado in East China Using a High-Resolution Numerical Simulation

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Abstract

Devastating tornadoes in China have received growing attention in recent years, but little is known about their formation, structure, and evolution on the tornadic scale. Most of these tornadoes develop within the East Asian monsoon regime, in an environment quite different from tornadoes in the U.S. In this study, we used an idealized, highresolution (25-m grid spacing) numerical simulation to investigate the deadly EF4 (Enhanced Fujita scale category 4) tornado that occurred on 23 June 2016 and claimed 99 lives in Yancheng, Jiangsu Province. A tornadic supercell developed in the simulation that had striking similarities to radar observations. The violent tornado in Funing County was reproduced, exceeding EF4 (74 m s–1), consistent with the on-site damage survey. It was accompanied by a funnel cloud that extended to the surface, and exhibited a double-helix vorticity structure. The signal of tornado genesis was found first at the cloud base in the pressure perturbation field, and then developed both upward and downward in terms of maximum vertical velocity overlapping with the intense vertical vorticity centers. The tornado’s demise was found to accompany strong downdrafts overlapping with the intense vorticity centers. One of the interesting findings of this work is that a violent surface vortex was able to be generated and maintained, even though the simulation employed a free-slip lower boundary condition. The success of this simulation, despite using an idealized numerical approach, provides a means to investigate more historical tornadoes in China.

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Acknowledgments

The authors thank Prof. Yuqing Wang from the University of Hawaii, Prof. Dalin Zhang from the University of Maryland, and Prof. Yali Luo from the Chinese Academy of Meteorological Sciences (CAMS), for their instructive suggestions in revising this manuscript. We are also appreciative of the assistance of Drs. Hongli Wang and Ying Liu from CAMS, and Dr. Lin Zhang from the Meteorological Observation Center of China. Dr. Dan Yao is especially grateful to his Ph.D. degree supervisor, Prof. Zhiyong Meng from Peking University, who guided him onto the road of tornado damage survey and numerical simulation research. The editor and two anonymous reviewers are sincerely thanked for their instructive comments.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. State Key Laboratory of Severe Weather, Chinese Academy of Meteorological Sciences, Beijing, 100081, China

    Dan Yao, Haile Xue, Jinfang Yin, Jisong Sun, Xudong Liang & Jianping Guo

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  1. Dan Yao
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  2. Haile Xue
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  3. Jinfang Yin
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  4. Jisong Sun
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  5. Xudong Liang
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Correspondence to Haile Xue.

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Supported by the National Natural Science Foundation of China (41705028, 41405095, and 41405006) and Basic Research Fund of the Chinese Academy of Meteorological Sciences [2017Y018, 2015Z003, and 2017Z017 (2017LASW-A02)].

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Yao, D., Xue, H., Yin, J. et al. Investigation into the Formation, Structure, and Evolution of an EF4 Tornado in East China Using a High-Resolution Numerical Simulation. J Meteorol Res 32, 157–171 (2018). https://doi.org/10.1007/s13351-018-7083-0

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