Ticker for May 21, 2008

                
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May 21, 2008       May 21, 2008       May 21, 2008       May 21, 2008



35th Anniversary of Very Important Tornado

Saturday will mark the 35th anniversary of the tornadic supercell that
struck Union City, Oklahoma on May 25th, 1973.

This tornado claimed the lives of two people, and caused significant
property damage to parts of the town. Loss of life, of course, is an
incalculable toll; there is no way to bring a life's infinitude into
measure. And, for many families in the area, this storm remains
a weather event of profound consequence.

However, by more detached standards, this really wasn't much of a
historic tornado. It fits in with dozens of other bad tornadoes that
damaged parts of towns. So what makes it such an important and special
event, worthy of noting its anniversary?

Well, it wasn't so much the tornado itself. What counted on that day
were the eyes that were cast upon it. And what counts today is the
way that the Union City event spoke to the future.

You see, the Union City tornado was the first that was comprehensively
observed by two very important sets of eyes.

The first of set of eyes was a team of scientific storm chasers,
gathering data, pictures and eyewitness observations of storm structure,
intensity and damage. Storm chasing, still an inexact science today,
was still in its infancy, and the tactics of the day were, shall we say,
still under development.

The second set of eyes came from afar, just over the horizon in Norman,
from a newly-improved piece of hardware (and software!) called "Doppler
Radar".

Together, these critical data sets (firsthand storm-chaser observations
and comprehensive radar profiling of the storm's development, maturity
and decay) made Union City the Storm That Launched A Thousand
Dissertations. If you did supercell or tornadgenesis research during
the next 20 years, you used or referenced these data sets.

It was such an important storm that the National Severe Storms Lab even
published a *book*, based solely on early research from the storm.
Each of nearly 20 chapters contained cutting-edge research, observation
and analysis of the event.

The connection to improved warnings is unmistakable. This storm
advanced the understanding, and therefore the prediction and real-time
assessment, of potentially-tornadic storms. And, the chasers of
this era also advanced the safety of those who would follow them,
by improving the strategies and tactics of storm observation.

The importance of this event to today's understanding of supercell
behavior cannot be understated. This storm, unlike the vast majority
of terrible killers of its ilk, repaid humanity with thousands of
lives saved to counterbalance the two precious ones that were lost.

A more comprehensive OCS remembrance of the event is available in
the Spring 2004 edition of Oklahoma Climate:
http://climate.mesonet.org/seasonal_summary.html