In this section I will am providing post-event maps and analysis showing how forecasts and nowcasts for severe storm events in Central Texas were handled. When the data is available, I will also provide a summary of the severe event itself.

I have added a section summarizing the various severe weather parameters which are obtained from computer forecasts of weather conditions, along with a brief description of how computers forecast future weather.  To access that section, please click here.

At the moment, I am working on the October 12, 2001 event that produced a series of tornadoes from west of Valley Mills to Tokio, West and Birome. As soon as I can get this new section prepared, it will join the five events currently available. The most recent addition is from Sunday, May 6th, 2001 when a supercell thunderstorm developed near Lampasas and moved eastward and southeastward through Bell County, producing hail up to 4 inches in diameter and reports of several brief tornadoes. The other events (all from 2000) are: May 12, 2000, when a severe thunderstorm developed ahead of a prefrontal trough in Hill County and moved south-southwest over Lake Whitney, spawning a tornado that caused one fatality on the west side of the lake; Friday, April 7th, when a supercell storm formed at the intersection of a cold front and dryline and moved southeast across Bell County, producing hail up to 1.75 inch diameter; Sunday, March 26th, when a storm split occurred over Burnet County and the left-moving portion of the split raced across southern Bell and Falls counties, producing large hail and damaging winds; and March 10th, when a supercell storm moved southeastward from Coryell County into Bell County and produced a large wall cloud and a reported brief tornado in Morgans Point Resort on Lake Belton.

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May 6, 2001 Supercell Storm in Bell County
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  May 12, 2000 Tornadic Storm at Lake Whitney
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In a situation highly reminiscent of the Jarrell tornado of three years ago (5-27-97), a supercell storm formed along a stalled prefrontal trough at mid-afternoon in an environment of extremely high CAPE values but only weak to moderate shear. The storm moved south- southwest along the stalled boundary and produced a large tornado on the western shore of Lake Whitney in Bosque County. One person died and one was seriously injured when the storm destroyed a mobile home. Many homes were damaged or destroyed. The National Weather Service at Fort Worth surveyed the damage and rated some of it F3 on the Fujita scale.

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 April 7, 2000 Supercell
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BELL COUNTY:

A supercell storm formed at the intersection of a southward moving cold front and a subtle dryline over Central Texas Friday afternoon. The storm moved south-southeast (making it a classic right-mover) across Bell County, producing hail up to 1.75 inch in diameter.

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 March 26, 2000 Left-Moving Supercell
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BELL AND FALLS COUNTIES:

A storm over Burnet County split and the left-moving portion became an anticyclonic supercell which produced hail as large as baseballs and very strong winds across southern Bell and southern Falls counties. Damage was locally heavy in the communities of Salado, Little River-Academy, and Heidenheimer in Bell County.

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 March 10, 2000 Supercell
(Click on the underlined text)

CORYELL AND BELL COUNTIES:

A supercell storm formed over western Coryell County and moved southeastward, passing southwest of Gatesville and into northern Bell County over the Fort Hood military reservation. The storm produced golf ball to baseball size hail in Coryell County, a vivid wall cloud in northern Bell County, and a reported brief tornado at Morgans Point Resort on Lake Belton.

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Credits:
    ETA model forecast images were obtained via the courtesy of Gilbert Sebenste and the Storm Machine
    RUC output was obtained in gridded format from the NWS OSO server and processed on PC-Gridds.
    Radar plots, maps and analysis from CAPS was obtained from the CAPS server and from the archived files at CAPS.

    CAPS is The Center for Analysis and Prediction of Storms (CAPS), located at the University of Oklahoma in Norman, and is a National Science  Foundation Science and Technology Center whose mission is to demonstrate the practicability of small-scale numerical weather prediction with an emphasis on deep convection.

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