Research on tornadoes in 2024

During 2024, tornadoes and tornado outbreaks were extensively researched by meteorologists and engineers across the world. Some research and publications included: the effects of "Tornado Brain", several mobile radar observations of tornadoes, including the measurement of tornadic winds over 300 mph, the idea of tornado alley shifting eastward, and many other things.

January
In January 2024, researchers with Colorado State University’s Department of Atmospheric Science, published an analysis and database of 74 tornadoes which occurred in South America. According to the researchers, this was the first time tornadic environments was studied across South America.

February
In February 2024, researchers with the University of Tennessee and University of Missouri published an academic study about how survivors from the 2011 Joplin tornado recover from "Tornado Brain", a new term for the PTSD of tornado survivors. During the same month, researchers with Auburn University (AU), Florida International University (FIU), Pennsylvania State University (Penn State), Louisiana State University (LSU), University of South Alabama, University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign (UIUC), University of Kentucky, and CoreLogic, published an academic case study on how hurricane-resistant houses performed during the 2022 Arabi–New Orleans EF3 tornado. Researchers with the Tornado and Storm Research Organisation (TORRO), Met Office, and Jersey Met, also published a case study on the storm which produced an intense tornado and a hailstorm on the island nation of Jersey.

March
In March 2024, Anthony W. Lyza, Matthew D. Flournoy, and A. Addison Alford, researchers with the National Severe Storms Laboratory, Storm Prediction Center, CIWRO, and the University of Oklahoma's School of Meteorology, published a paper where they state, ">20% of supercell tornadoes may be capable of producing EF4–EF5 damage" and that "the legacy F-scale wind speed ranges may ultimately provide a better estimate of peak tornado wind speeds at 10–15 m AGL for strong–violent tornadoes and a better damage-based intensity rating for all tornadoes". In their conclusion, the researchers also posed the question: "Does a 0–5 ranking scale make sense given the current state of understanding of the low-level tornado wind profile and engineering of structures?"

April
In April 2024, the European Severe Storms Laboratory and the Czech Hydrometeorological Institute, along with seven other European organizations, published a detailed damage survey and analysis on the 2021 South Moravia tornado using the International Fujita scale. Also in April, Timothy A. Coleman, with the University of Alabama in Huntsville (UAH), Richard L. Thompson with the NOAA Storm Prediction Center, and Dr. Gregory S. Forbes, a retired meteorologist from The Weather Channel published an article to the Journal of Applied Meteorology and Climatology stating, "it is apparent that the perceived shift in tornado activity from the traditional tornado alley in the Great Plains to the eastern U.S. is indeed real". On April 26, a Doppler on Wheels (DOW) mobile radar truck measured 1-second wind speeds of approximately 224 mph at a height of ~258 m as a tornado passed near Harlan, Iowa, causing widespread destruction. On April 30, strong tornado near Hollister, Oklahoma passed close to a NEXRAD radar. The radar measured a tornado vortex signature with a gate-to-gate of 260 mph about 600 ft above the surface.

In mid-April, the National Severe Storms Laboratory along with Texas Tech University begin the Low-Level Internal Flows in Tornadoes (LIFT) Project, with the goal to collect data from the “damage layer” of tornadoes; from ground level to 20 m above the surface. The LIFT project deployed 11 times between April-June, gathering data from “numerous successful intercepts”.

May
In May 2024, researchers with the University of Western Ontario's Northern Tornado Project and engineering department conducted a case study on the 2018 Alonsa EF4 tornado, the 2020 Scarth EF3 tornado, and the 2023 Didsbury EF4 tornado. In their case study, the researchers assessed extreme damage caused by the tornado which is ineligible for ratings on the Canadian Enhanced Fujita scale or the American Enhanced Fujita scale (EF-scale). In their analysis, it was determined all three tornadoes caused damage well-beyond their assigned EF-scale ratings, with all three tornadoes having EF5-intensity winds; Alonsa with 127 m/s, Scarth with 110-119 m/s, and Didsbury with 119 m/s. At the end of the analysis, the researchers stated, "the lofting wind speeds given by this model are much higher than the rating based on the ground survey EF-scale assessment. This may be due to the current tendency to bias strong EF5 tornadoes lower than reality, or limitations in conventional EF-scale assessments".

On May 24, a Doppler on Wheels observed and recorded data of a large and long-lived EF2 tornado near Duke, Oklahoma.

Greenfield tornado
On May 21, a violent EF4 tornado struck the town of Greenfield, Iowa. As the tornado moved through the town, a Doppler on Wheels measured winds of at least >250 mph, "possibly as high as 290 mph" at 44 m above the surface. Pieter Groenemeijer, the director of the European Severe Storms Laboratory, noted that "on the IF-scale, 250 mph measured below 60 m above ground level is IF4 on the IF-scale, 290 mph is IF5." The peak wind speed estimate was revised to between 309 mph and 318 mph, a figure "among the highest wind speeds ever determined using DOW data", on June 22, 2024.

A few weeks after the tornado, the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration released details about an experimental warning system which was tested before and during the tornado. This new warning system, named Warn-on-Forecast System (WoFS), was created by the Hazardous Weather Testbed housed in the National Weather Center in Norman, Oklahoma. During the experiment and test, the WoFS gave a high indication of “near-ground rotation” in and around the area of Greenfield, Iowa between 2-4 p.m. According to the press release, 75-minutes later, the violent EF4 tornado touched down. Scientists with the National Severe Storms Laboratory were able to local National Weather Service forecasters a 75-minute lead time for the tornado.

June
In June 2024, the first part of research from the PERiLS Project was published through the American Meteorological Society. On June 3, a rare and intense EF3 tornado struck the town of oThongathi (Tongaat), in South Africa. The South African Weather Service conducted a nine-day case study on the tornado.

July
In July 2024, scientists and historians from the University of Maryland, College Park, Storm Prediction Center, National Weather Service Norman, Oklahoma, Stanford University, and the University of Oklahoma's School of Meteorology, Center for Analysis and Prediction of Storms, and Advanced Radar Research Center, published information on a new database, called Tornado Archive, which contains information on more than 100,000 tornadoes.

On July 19, the hit disaster-film Twisters released, which included accurate scientific theories on ways to potentially disrupt tornadoes.

Mobile radar observations
This is a list of tornadoes which were observed by nearby mobile doppler weather radars.