Observations of the Hurricane “Danny” Tornado Outbreak of 16 August 1985

Abstract

On 16 August 1985 the remnants of Hurricane “Danny” spawned a large tornado outbreak in Mississippi, Alabama and Tennessee. At least six of 22 tornado- or funnel-producing storms observed on that day displayed long-track radar hook echoes or produced tornado families. One of the storms persisted for at least 3 h, traveling some 150 km during its tornado-producing phase, and offering the clearest evidence to date of quasi-steady supercell-like convection in a tropical cyclone environment. Photographs of two of the hurricane-spawned tornadoes, the first such documentation to be published, show that the tornadoes displayed multiple-vortex structure and formed beneath wall clouds.