TORUS launches season of gathering storm data

With severe weather a possibility, around 20 vehicles with scientific-looking instruments attached to them and approximately 70 men and women were using the shopping center parking lot in the 1300 block of Lincoln Street as a staging area on Wednesday afternoon.
Participants in Targeted Observation by Radars and UAS (unoccupied aircraft systems) of Supercells project (TORUS) were monitoring weather conditions in north central Kansas and south central Kansas in anticipation of hitting the road to gather data.
The TORUS project involves dozens of scientists and students deploying a broad suite of cutting-edge instrumentation into the Great Plains to gather data on severe weather.
“We are kind of staging here waiting to see what the weather does through this afternoon and whether or not we might get some storms to collect data on,” Stephen Shield, a student at the University of Nebraska-Lincoln working on his doctorate degree in atmospheric studies said. “It is kind of a conditional play. It is obviously kind of warm and humid, which is kind of what you look for to begin with. But there are not strong indications that storms will actually develop, at least during the daylight hours.”
Led by the University of Nebraska, TORUS is a collaboration with the University of Colorado-Boulder, Texas Tech University, the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) National Severe Storms Laboratory and the Cooperative Institute for Mesoscale Meteorological Studies.
TORUS instrumentation includes four UAS systems, three mobile radars, eight mobile mesonets (trucks mounted with meteorological instrumentation), a mobile LIDAR (similar to radar but using an eye-safe laser), three mobile sounding systems, and the NOAA P3 manned aircraft.
The aim of TORUS is to use the data collected to improve the conceptual model of supercell thunderstorms by exposing how small-scale structures within these storms might lead to tornado formation.
The first field season for TORUS was conducted in 2019.
After being shut down for two years because of the COVID-19 pandemic, TORUS launched again this year with the first field day being Tuesday and based in Concordia.
If a storm is detected, all of the TORUS vehicles will respond.
“We will each have our portion of the storm that we will collect data on. Everyone has a job to get into place and collect data,” Shield said.
The plan is to collect data on storms from mid-May through mid-June anywhere between Texas and North Dakota.
“Wherever the storms may be on a given day,” Shield said.
Data gathered will be used in research.
“For example, learning more about how storms form and behave can tell us when we might expect tornadoes in the future,” Shield said.
New to the project this year is the fact that the National Weather Service Office will have access to the data being collected which could help forecasters issue warnings if necessary.
While those participating in TORUS are on the lookout for severe weather, they also understand that it isn’t welcome by everyone.
“We are very aware of that. I guess one way we think about it is, weather is going to happen regardless of whether we are here or not. And if we can do our small part now to maybe reduce the impact of storms in the future, that is really our goal. To improve forecasts so we can reduce the loss of life and property. If they are there, we might as well learn what we can from them,” Shield said.