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The damaging tornado in Luxembourg on 9 August 2019: towards better operational forecasts
Author(s) -
Mathias Luca,
Ludwig Patrick,
Pinto Joaquim G.
Publication year - 2021
Publication title -
weather
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.467
H-Index - 40
eISSN - 1477-8696
pISSN - 0043-1656
DOI - 10.1002/wea.3979
Subject(s) - tornado , environmental science , meteorology , geography
On 9 August 2019, a devastating tornado hit southwestern Luxembourg and caused widespread damage and many injuries. The atmospheric environment, in which the tornado occurred, was characterised by a moderate latent instability, very strong vertical wind shear and high storm‐relative helicity. The radar images show typical characteristics of a tornadic supercell, that is, a hook echo and a well‐defined velocity couplet. To assess the risk of tornadoes associated with supercells in the future, the Luxembourgish weather service (MeteoLux) elaborated an ingredients‐based forecast concept.