The Hybrid System That Spots Tornadoes
While radar detects the formation of a tornado, a network of in-person tornado spotters also confirms its existence.
It has been an exceptional week for tornadoes in the United States. In the past 13 days, more than 366 twisters have struck the central and eastern United States. They ranged from a deadly tornado in Dayton, Ohio, to a mile-wide beast that leveled houses across 30 miles of Kansas but remarkably left no fatalities.
This outbreak has been abiding: While no one day has proved catastrophic, it’s odd that so many medium-caliber tornado days should follow one another so closely. Even on Wednesday, a relatively quiet
