Convective Storms & NWP Seminar Series presents...
April 10, 1979: A Look Back
Lou Wicker and Don Burgess
NOAA/National Severe Storms Laboratory
CIMMS, Norman, OK
10 April 2009, 2:00 PM
National Weather Center, Room 5600
120 David L. Boren Blvd.
University of Oklahoma
Norman, OK
Directions to the NWC (.pdf, 60 kb)
This spring marks the 30th anniversary of the April 10, 1979 tornado outbreak…the so-called Wichita Falls outbreak. Vernon, TX and Lawton, OK were also struck by tornadoes during the event. The outbreak occurred during the first operational day of Project SESAME. An overview of the outbreak will be presented, including SESAME and other weather observations, and a sampling of images of the tornadoes and tornado damage. A highlight of the presentation will be discussion of a newly-finished high-resolution (4 km) WRF model run with input from the reanalysis dataset. Brief comparison will be made between operational model runs made on April 9 & 10, 1979 and the new high-resolution WRF model run.