The purpose of this study was to identify and describe changes in behaviors of young children as reported by their parents following the March 28, 1984, tornadoes in eastern North Carolina.The population for the study consisted of 130 children (three, four and five-year-olds) whose parents had registered for disaster assistance with the American Red Cross after the tornado.The research instrument was the Pre- and PostDisaster Behavior Instrument constructed by the researcher to obtain data from parents regarding changes in behavior of the children following the tornado. Twenty-four interviewers were trained to administer the questionnaire to parents. The instrument yielded frequencies of forty selected behaviors during three time periods: (1) before the tornado to right after the tornado; (2) before the tornado to eight months after the tornado and (3) right after the tornado to eight months after the tornado. The McNemar test was employed to determine statistical significance between the responses for the three time periods. Statistical significance was reported provided two criteria were met: (1) ten percent or more of the subjects reported a change; and (2) the change was significant at the .05 level.FindingsChanges in behavior were found to be statistically significant in the three defined time periods. Females displayed more behavior changes than males, and retained those changes in behavior eight months after the tornado. Three and five year old children displayed more behavior changes than four year olds. Young children whose homes were destroyed experienced more behavior changes than children whose homes received minor or major damage. Children who were indirect victims exhibited a higher proportion of behavior changes than direct victims. The children who were at home during the tornado made more significant changes in behavior than children who were not at home.Fourteen changes in behavior were statistically significant at the .0000 level. Two behaviors, fear of loud sounds and fear of the wind, were reported to change significantly for more than half of the subjects. A significant relationship was found to exist between a limited number of parent behaviors and changes in child behaviors.

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This study presents an overview of lightning formation and the correlations seen with soil moisture slope along with potential of tornadic thunderstorms. Three moisture classes (large, marginal, small) were created using soil moisture observed during three tornado outbreaks (June-02-1990, April-26-1994, May-13-1995) over the Midwest. Chi-square, Nearest Neighbor, and Point Density calculations were performed and suggest that lightning polarity/frequency shift between soil moisture classes at a = .01. Using lightning characteristics in the thunderstorm lifecycle, one is able to evaluate relative tornadogenesis areas within moisture classes some 8-10 hours in advance. Tornadogenesis points fell within expected areas indicating that borders between marginal and small moisture classes are approximate locations of stage change (mature to dissipation) of the thunderstorm lifecycle. Results are intended to be used as a tool that helps verify situations that are more likely to be tornadic when observing real-time lightning data from thunderstorms crossing significant soil moisture boundaries. / Department of Geography

Tornadoes pose a significant threat to residents of Indiana due to a large relative frequency of events that is comparable to most states within classic Tornado Alley. Because of this threat weather forecasters must be very aware of atmospheric environments that lead to tornadogenesis. In some cases these environments are obvious; in others mesoscale variability conducive to tornadogenesis may not be easy to identify. As a result the purpose of this study is to determine if mesoscale variability along primary land-cover boundaries plays a significant role in the climatology of tornadogenesis in Indiana. This is accomplished by developing a set of spatial and temporal climatologies for all significant (F2 and greater damage) Indiana tornadoes from 1955 - 2001. These climatologies are used to determine if spatial distributions of tomadogenesis events are influenced over space and time by significant land-cover boundaries. Results of this research seem to suggest that land-cover boundaries play a role in the tornado climatology of Indiana, with large tornadogenesis frequencies in Lake County, Marion County, and along a corridor extending from central into southern Indiana. Urban heat island circulations seem to play a role in the Lake and Marion counties' frequency maxima, while non-classical mesoscale circulations (NCMCs) appear to contribute to the frequency maxima in southern Indiana. / Department of Geography

Thesis (M.S.)--University of Missouri-Columbia, 2005. / The entire dissertation/thesis text is included in the research.pdf file; the official abstract appears in the short.pdf file (which also appears in the research.pdf); a non-technical general description, or public abstract, appears in the public.pdf file. Title from title screen of research.pdf file viewed on (December 13, 2006) Vita. Includes bibliographical references.

abstract: Isentropic analysis is a type of analysis that is based on using the concept of potential temperatures, the adiabatically established temperature at 1000 hPa. In the 1930s and 1940s this type of analysis proved to be valuable in indicating areas of increased moisture content and locations experiencing flow up or down adiabatic surfaces. However, in the early 1950s, this type of analysis faded out of use and not until the twenty-first century have some researchers started once again to examine the usefulness of isentropic analysis. One aspect in which isentropic analysis could be practical, based on prior research, is in severe weather situations, due to its ability to easily show adiabatic motion and moisture. As a result, I analyzed monthly climatological isentropic surfaces to identify distinct patterns associated with tornado occurrences for specific regions and months across the contiguous United States. I collected tornado reports from 1974 through 2009 to create tornado regions for each month across the contiguous United States and corresponding upper air data for the same time period. I then separated these upper air data into tornado and non-tornado days for specific regions and conducted synoptic and statistical analyses to establish differences between the two. Finally, I compared those results with analyses of individual case studies for each defined region using independent data from 2009 through 2010. On tornado days distinct patterns can be identified on the isentropic surface: (1) the average isentropic surface lowered on tornado days indicating a trough across the region, (2) a corresponding increase in moisture content occurred across the tornado region, and (3) wind shifted in such a manner to produce flow up the isentropic trough indicating uplift. When comparing the climatological results with the case studies, the isentropic pattern for the case studies in general was more pronounced compared to the climatological pattern; however, this would be expected as when creating the average the pattern/conditions will be smoothed. These findings begin to bridge the large gap in literature, show the usefulness of isentropic analysis in monthly and daily use and serve as catalysts to create a finer resolution database in isentropic coordinates. / Dissertation/Thesis / Ph.D. Geography 2012

Tornadoes cause numerous deaths and significant property damage each year, yet how tornado activity varies across climate states, particularly under global warming, remains poorly understood. Importantly, severe weather events arise during transient periods of extreme thermodynamic environments whose variability may differ from that of the environmental mean state. This study analyzes the climatological relationships between commonly-used severe weather environmental proxies (the product of convective available potential energy and bulk vertical wind shear, energy-helicity index, and the significant tornado parameter) and tornado density on three dominant timescales of climate forcing: diurnal, seasonal, and interannual. We utilize reanalysis data to calculate the spatial distributions of the mean, median, and a range of extreme percentiles of these proxies across each timescale as well as for the full climatology. We then test the extent to which each measure captures the spatiotemporal variability of tornado density over the continental United States. Results indicate that the mean is a suitable statistic when used with the full climatology of the energy-helicity index and the significant tornado parameter without using convective inhibition in calculations, the diurnal cycle for convective available potential energy and the product of convective available potential energy and bulk vertical wind shear, and the interannual variations for all proxies except convective available potential energy. The mean is outperformed by extreme percentiles otherwise. This understanding of climatological relationships between tornadoes and the large scale environments can improve prediction of tornado frequency and provides a foundation for understanding how changes in the statistics of large-scale environments may affect tornado activity in a future warmer climate state.

Thesis (Ph.D.)--University of Delaware, 2007. / Principal faculty advisor: Havidan Rodriguez, Dept. of Sociology & Criminal Justice. Includes bibliographical references.