VORTEX USA
The Verification of the Origins of Rotation in Tornadoes EXperiment-United States project, or VORTEX-USA, brings together meteorologists and social scientists to study tornadoes. NSSL is the lead organization in developing the VORTEX-USA research program to meet the VORTEX-USA objectives. “VORTEX-USA” refers to the program authorized by Congress in 2015, but tornado-focused projects under the VORTEX moniker began much earlier. Click here for a visual history!
The VORTEX-USA project began in 2015 with a focus on the southeast United States (VORTEX-SE) in an effort to understand how environmental factors common to this region affect the formation, intensity, structure, and path of tornadoes. Tornadoes pose multiple challenges in the southeast U.S. where they tend to occur at night in fast-moving storms with larger population densities and poorer visibility compared to other tornado-prone parts of the U.S. Furthermore, VORTEX-SE research exposed the prevalence of inadequate sheltering and housing types leading to increased vulnerability. To address these problems, NSSL has partnered with the Mississippi/Alabama Sea Grant to engage communities on studying perceptions of risk and increasing the effectiveness of public response to tornado hazards (VORTEX-SE Engagement).
VORTEX-USA continues exploring tornado-related problems in the southeast, but in parallel, a new focus is the study of the internal structures of tornadoes, which is best done in the flatter, treeless area in the plains of the U.S. Ultimately, tornadoes pose a societal hazard no matter where they strike, and so we continue to research them and explore the best methods for communicating their hazards to the public nationwide.
