The rear flank downdraft (RFD) is a region of dry air wrapping around the back of a mesocyclone in a supercell thunderstorm. [1] These areas of descending air are thought to be essential in the production of many supercellular tornadoes.

Rear flank downdraft (RFD) Studies indicate the RFD is a key component in the formation of tornadoes. The RFD develops as mid latitude wind from outside of the storm wrapping around the updraft and forced to the ground as a response to pressure patterns within the thunderstorm.

an internal RFD momentum surge observed in independent mobile Doppler radar observations. Pressure retrievals of EnKF analyses reveal that the low-level RFD outflow structure is primarily de- termined through nonlinear dynamic perturbation pressure gradient forcing.

Nov 1, 2015 · Positions of the forward-flank gust front (FFGF), RFD gust front (RFDGF), and internal RFD surge gust front (IRFDGF) at the lowest grid level are subjectively analyzed based on the convergence and wind speed fields and annotated with thick stipled, solid, and dashed gray lines, respectively.

Rapid evolution of the Dumas supercell was observed, including the development and decay of a low-level mesocyclone and four internal rear-flank downdraft (RFD) momentum surges.

events in tornadogenesis were examined including the RFD surge, RFD occlusion, descending reflectivity core, cell merger, inflow channel and inflow connection.

the rear flank downdraft (RFD) surge and along the RFD surge boundary in the early, mature and dissipating stages of the Manchester tornado. At times, the leading part of the mesonet was within 1 – 1.5 km of the tornado. In addition, the mesonets collected data on 3 other surges from this storm as well as 2 additional mature RFDs. As will be

Mar 14, 2023 · Using WSR-88D high-resolution radar, a rear-flank downdraft (RFD) surge and an RFD occlusion were identified just prior to high-end tornadogenesis for all 208 supercells. The RFD occlusion...

Two smaller RFD surges embedded within a broader RFD were detected in the mesonet array in the 10 minutes preceding tornadogenesis. The passage of the first RFD surge revealed several small vortices along the RFD surge boundary, one of which passed almost directly over one of the mobile mesonets.

The observations included sampling in the rear-flank downdraft (RFD) outflow both west and east of the tornado, including extended observations by part of the mesonet in close proximity to the tornadogenesis and tornado regions.