Tornadoes and Downbursts in the Context of Generalized Planetary Scales

1981/08/01 by T. Theodore Fujita, Tetsuya Theodore. Fujita · 912 citations
Earth and Planetary Sciences · Engineering · #Airflow #Atmospheric sciences #Climatology #Context (archaeology) #Environmental science #Equator #Fluid Dynamics and Turbulent Flows #Geodesy #Geography #Geology #Mesoscale meteorology #Meteorological Phenomena and Simulations #Meteorology #Physics #Thunderstorm #Tornado #Tropical and Extratropical Cyclones Research

paper · pdf · doi:10.1175/1520-0469(1981)038<1511:taditc>2.0.co;2

published in Journal of the Atmospheric Sciences 38(8), 1511-1534 (American Meteorological Society)

openalex publication_date 1981/08/01 · openalex created_date 2025/10/10 · openalex updated_date 2026/07/28

Abstract

In order to cover a wide range of horizontal dimensions of airflow, the author proposes a series of five scales, maso, meso, miso (to be read as my-so), moso and muso arranged in the order of the vowels, A, E, 1, O, U. The dimensions decrease by two orders of magnitude per scale, beginning with the planet's equator length chosen to be the maximum dimension of masoscale for each planet. Mesoscale highs and lows were described on the basis of mesoanalyses, while sub-mesoscale disturbances were depicted by cataloging over 20 000 photographs of wind effects taken from low-flying aircraft during the past 15 years. Various motion thus classified into these scales led to a conclusion that extreme winds induced by thunderstorms are associated with misoscale and mososcale airflow spawned by the parent. mesoscale disturbances.

Cited by

• Two archetypes of tornadic quasi‐linear convective systems in the United Kingdom: Relevance of horizontal shearing instability to vortexgenesis and maintenance
• Observations of Severe Local Storms and Tornadoes with the Atmospheric Imaging Radar
• Wave modelling in coastal and inner seas
• Computer-based model for the transient dynamics of a tall building during digitally simulated Andrews AFB thunderstorm
• Photogrammetric Analysis of the 2013 El Reno Tornado Combined with Mobile X-Band Polarimetric Radar Data
• Diagnosing Model Errors for the 20 May 2019 Oklahoma Tornado Outbreak
• Radar Signatures and Surface Observations of Elevated Convection Associated with Damaging Surface Winds
• Snowband Characteristics Associated With Lake‐Effect Misovortices During the OWLeS Project
• Twisting Rolls. An Heuristic Model and 3D Numerical Simulations of Vortex Patterns
• Assessment of a GOES microburst product for two early cold season convective storms
• Possible Implications of Self-Similarity for Tornadogenesis and Maintenance
• Tornadoes in Europe: Synthesis of the Observational Datasets
• Spatiotemporal variability of tornadoes in the Czech Lands, 1801–2017
• Observational Analysis of the 27 May 1997 Central Texas Tornadic Event. Part II: Tornadoes
• Localized Tornado Outbreak at the Upstream of a Tropical Easterly Wave in Camarines Norte, Philippines (13 September 2025)
• Fragility assessment of transmission line supports under non-synoptic wind loads using multi-fidelity stochastic emulators
• An Updated National Tornado Climatology for Canada
• Kinetic Energy of Tornadoes in the United States. [europepmc]
• Downburst-like experimental impinging jet measurements at the WindEEE Dome. [europepmc]

Related

• Five Scales of Airflow Associated with a Series of Downbursts on 16 July 1980
• ARE GIANT TORNADOES THE LEGS OF SOLAR PROMINENCES?
• On the development of extratropical cyclones
• Multi-Level In-Situ Measurements During a Direct Hit by a Significant Tornado
• The Role of Multiple-Vortex Tornado Structure in Causing Storm Researcher Fatalities