Comment on 'why do tornados and hailstorms rest on weekends?' by D. Rosenfeld and T. Bell

摘要

The paper “Why do tornados and hailstorms rest on weekends?” Rosenfeld and Bell, 2011 (hereinafter RB2011) contains key misunderstandings of US spring and summer tornadoes, supercell storms, and their environments. In this comment, we show that (1) there is not a robust weekly cycle or midweek maximum in tornado occurrence or tornado days, (2) RB2011’s physical explanation for how increased aerosol concentrations would cause increased frequency and severity of tornadoes and hail in supercells is inconsistent with actual supercell storm structures and their environments, and (3) RB2011’s method of averaging aerosol and tornado data from 100oW eastward conflates an aerosol weekly cycle in one geographic location with tornado occurrence in another.