NSSL Case Study - 12 December 1996

Central California

A mini-supercell formed in the late afternoon and tracked across Stanislaus County some 70 miles SSE of Sacramento.  The storm produced an F1 tornado very near the town of Oakdale.  This is another of the many cases from around the country which NSSL is using to test its Mesocyclone Detection Algorithm (MDA).

Presented here are various WSR-88D radar images from the Sacramento, CA radar(KDAX).

Description:  The tornado occured about halfway through the Storm Lifetime Loop  at the point where there was clearly one dominant upddraft(When viewing the loop, storm motion is to the northeast).  There had initially been two competing updrafts.   When the updraft to the east became dominant it also moved into an area of slightly more unstable air, thus the storm grew taller.  It then proceeded within minutes to produce the Oakdale tornado.  The tornado was on the ground for about five minutes and resulted in minor damage outside of the town. Description:  

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