In the
January 1961 edition of the Weather Bureau's
Monthly Weather Review, the experimental use of Doppler Radar for detection of tornadoes is discussed following a 4 year project. One of the principle researchers assigned to the project was my paternal grandfather, Robert L. Smith. As children, we always heard stories about the project consisting of regular trips in the southern plains in search of suitable storms to conduct the research. I'm hoping to find more photos of the equipment they used, but here is the trailer that housed the 3 cm continuous wave Doppler Radar.
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| (MONTHLY WEATHER REVIEW, JAN 1961) |
One of the breakthroughs was the June 10th, 1958 El Dorado, KS tornado. At the time, other than spotting and reporting tornadoes, the only other way to detect them was with conventional radar. This practice is poor for warning, however, as the well-recognized hook echo is often a detected after touchdown, or very close to it. Further, such echoes are not seen in all tornadic thunderstorms. HP tornadic supercells and QLCS tornadoes have poorly defined reflectivity echoes.
In the El Dorado tornado, the conventional radar showed the classic hook echo, but prior to that, the new Doppler radar had detected a significant Doppler shift.
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| (MONTHLY WEATHER REVIEW, JAN 1961) |
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| (MONTHLY WEATHER REVIEW, JAN 1961) |
In all, 13 people perished in El Dorado, with many more injured. In 2008, the city erected a monument dedicated to those who died that day.
