Hurricane Beryl Causes Tornadoes Across the US
Hurricanes are known for producing extreme wind and flooding, but the tornado threat post landfall is often forgotten about. Hurricane Beryl caused many tornadoes and severe weather across the US this week.
After making landfall in Texas on Monday, Hurricane Beryl was quickly downgraded to a post-tropical cyclone. However, this didn’t stop the storm from producing widespread severe weather across the states.
Tornadoes on Monday Set Records
As post-tropical cyclone Beryl tracked northeast from Texas to Louisiana, then up to Arkansas, this potent storm spit out a staggering number of tornadoes. On Monday alone the National Weather Service issued 113 tornado warnings, the most on record for a single day in July.
The commotion didn't stop there, Beryl was the cause for 86 additional warnings on Tuesday and Wednesday.
Hurricanes Bring the Right Ingredients to Spawn Tornadoes... but Not Hail
It is not uncommon for hurricanes to spawn tornadoes. Given the warm, moist air that makes up a hurricane, there is plenty of instability to drive thunderstorms embedded in the system. Tornadoes are particularly prone to developing in the outer bands of the northeast quadrant of a tropical cyclone. Since the cyclone lead with it's northeast quadrant, tornado formation was likely.
Hail, on the other hand is unlikely in hurricanes. Logically thinking, hailstone formation needs cold temperatures, however a tropical cyclone is made of a layer of warm air. The freezing line is very high up in a cyclone, so even if hail did form, it would melt before reaching the surface.
Beryl's Tornado Count Still Trails Hurricane Ivan's 2004 Record
Right now, the National Weather Service has reported 40 tornadoes since Beryl made landfall. Since many tornadoes were wrapped in rain and not visible, this number will go up after NWS offices survey tornado damage.
Either way, this is nowhere near the number of tornadoes produced by Hurricane Ivan in 2004. The National Weather Service reports that in the days following Ivan’s landfall as a Category 3 hurricane, the storm spawned 118 tornadoes from Florida to Pennsylvania. Ivan currently holds the record for most tornadoes produced by a hurricane.
HailTrace Maps Critical Tornado Tracks for FEMA Response
These are busy days for meteorologists at HailTrace. They are monitoring all storms, tracing the tornado track, and building maps.
Accurate maps are not only important for HailTrace subscribers, but also for FEMA, who has a contract with HailTrace to use the tornado maps for first response after storms do damage to a town.
If you are interested in a hail map, wind map, or tornado map, head to HailTrace.com.
Now read about how we Create Accurate Hail maps During Radar Outages or Why NOAA Hail Reports Aren't Enough to Find Hit Areas.