Monitoring of concurrent, co-located tornado and flash flood (TORFF) warnings
Below is the most recent image showing overlapping tornado and flash flood warning polygons thus far in 2024. Warnings are shown if they overlap in space and are valid within 30 minutes of one another, calculated as described in Nielsen et al. (2015, Weather and Forecasting). The images are updated once per day at approximately 1200 UTC. The images are zoomed in on the region where overlapping TORFF warnings are most frequently observed.
Images last updated 0933 UTC Monday September 9 2024. (click image to embiggen)The ten most recent TORFF overlapping warnings in 2024 are:
GLD issued TOR warning at: 202408230009 and FF warning at: 202408230028TWC issued TOR warning at: 202408212245 and FF warning at: 202408212237
TWC issued TOR warning at: 202408170322 and FF warning at: 202408170331
BOU issued TOR warning at: 202408130128 and FF warning at: 202408130132
BOU issued TOR warning at: 202408130124 and FF warning at: 202408130109
BOU issued TOR warning at: 202408130114 and FF warning at: 202408130132
BOU issued TOR warning at: 202408130030 and FF warning at: 202408130058
LWX issued TOR warning at: 202408091257 and FF warning at: 202408091248
LWX issued TOR warning at: 202408091257 and FF warning at: 202408091244
CTP issued TOR warning at: 202408091227 and FF warning at: 202408091244
Download the text file with the details of this year's overlapping warnings.
All TORFF Warning Intersections (n=4173) from 2008-2019:
Map of "Verified" TORFF Events from 2003-2018:
"Verified" TORFF events are identified by finding intersections between flash flood local storm reports (LSRs) and official tornado paths that were reported within three hours of one another, allowing for up to a 50 km spacing between the two. Five different spacing thresholds are tested from 10 km to 50 km, where the 10 km (50 km) spacing creates the most (least) conservative event totals. Between 25 and 75 "verified" TORFF events occur on average per year, depending on spatial threshold chosen. Discussion of the specific methods can be found in Nielsen (2019) and Henderson et al. (2020, Weather and Forecasting).
Select a Spatial Buffer:
TORFF Warning Intersections for Select U.S. Tropical Cyclones:
Select a Storm:This research is sponsored by NOAA grant NA15OAR4590233, in support of the 2016 VORTEX-SE field campaign.