Observations of a Severe Left Moving Thunderstorm

Abstract

Abstract Observations have shown that right moving thunderstorms are favored in environments characterized by clockwise-turning hodographs. There are, however, a few observational and numerical studies of long-lived, left moving storms within environments characterized by clockwise-turning hodographs. For example, a documented left mover that occurred on 26 May 1992, near Coldspring, Texas, with a mesoanticyclone and hail spike (also called a three-body scattering signature) produced severe weather. Although a few cases have been documented, left moving thunderstorms have received less study than right moving cells. The long-lived, severe thunderstorm of 17 May 1996 is presented to improve documentation of left moving thunderstorms. The storm occurred over eastern Nebraska and will be referred to as the York County storm. This left mover resulted from storm splitting and moved to the west of a surface cold front. The relatively isolated storm subsequently split approximately 1 h later, yielding a new righ...