COMET Damaging Wind Studies

The Damaging Winds Group at the St. Louis National Weather Service Weather Forecast Office was composed of several Meteorologists and the office’s first Science and Operations Officer, Ron Przybylinski. Fascinated by their personal experiences and observations of squall lines and bowing convective systems, the group was focused on further understanding the environments that spawn squall lines and the mechanisms within them that are associated with damaging straight-line winds and tornadoes.

A majority of their work took place in the ‘90s and ‘00s and was done with numerous other professionals from across the field of meteorology. Meteorologists from NWS Weather Forecast Offices in Lincoln, IL, Springfield, MO, Tulsa, OK and more worked with the group and Ron. The group also often collaborated with faculty and students at schools such as Saint Louis University, Lyndon State College (now Vermont State University - Lyndon), and Purdue. Members of the group also participated in the Bow Echo and MCV Experiment (BAMEX) field campaign in 2003.

The group’s research and findings during BAMEX furthered operational meteorology through investigating the relationship between the Mid-Altitude Radial Convergence (MARC) velocity signature and the onset of damaging wind gusts at the surface. Of greater significance, environmental and storm-scale precursors to mesovortex development along the leading edge of squall lines and bowing line segments were found, helping NWS Meteorologists provide advanced lead time in the forecasting and warning for such features. A culmination of these findings is the “Three Ingredients Method” that NWS Meteorologists across the country still use today.

COMET Damaging Wind Studies

NWS St. Louis Damaging Winds Group