Comments on 'The North Dakota Tornadic Supercells of 18 July 2004: Issues Concerning High LCL Heights and Evapotranspiration'

摘要

Kellenbenz et al. (2007, hereafter KGD07) present a case study of supercells in eastern North Dakota on 18 July 2004. Three storms occurred,' two of which were tornadic, as discussed in the paper. We commend the authors for documenting many aspects of the event. Further, we believe the study could furnish important nuggets of understanding directly relevant to the prediction of violent (~F4 damage) tornadoes, particularly those heavily dependent on meso-a to meso-f3 scale processes, as opposed to broader "synoptically evident" (Doswell et al. 1993) outbreaks. We fully support the authors' plea for heightened real-time awareness when most environmental parameters support supercell tornadoes, and the exception(s) lurks on the margins of favorability. We also commend the authors for their diagnostic emphasis and, in particular, their subjective hand analysis of the planar data. This practice should be highly encouraged, as it facilitates greater situational understanding, and sets a positive example for operational diagnoses of basic surface and upper-air data (e.g., Sanders and Doswell 1995; Bosart 2003).