1997
The Baron Shear Product

Many meteorologists, including myself, have a very difficult time detecting tornadic storms unaided. Spotting couplets through folding and vertical development is a challenge for anyone, particularly while delivering on-the-fly storm analysis that in a way that viewers understand. To this day, 99% of the viewership have no understanding of a velocity field.  At best, they are told that somehow a green color next to a red color is a danger and to ignore all the other combinations of red and green.  Could we develop a display that made sense to a casual viewer?  That actually reinforced what the met was saying on air?  That depicted areas of real threat in red, areas not at threat in green?  I wouldn't have asked the question if we didn't have the answer.

Our solution, an exclusive gate-to-gate shear product, became the basis of another patent. It shows each pixel of total shear—those below the 50-knot threshold in green, and those above the threshold in red.

This image shows radial velocity data (corrected for second-trip echoes and range folding) obtained during the Siren, WI, tornado of June, 2001. This image shows the same moment, depicted using the exclusive Baron radial shear product.

The image on the left shows radial velocity data (corrected for second-trip echoes and range folding) obtained during the Siren, WI, tornado of June, 2001. The image on the right shows the same moment, depicted using the exclusive Baron radial shear product.

The shear products, one for radial shear and another for storm relative, were each obtained from the four elevations available to us. An added advantage was that shear data, unlike velocity, could be easily composited with shear data from another nearby radar.

Displaying excessive wind shear as a time lapse, as seen below, has since been used regularly to show the probable damage path of tornadoes.

The tornado that impacted Siren, WI, on June 18, 2001 was accurately tracked by the Baron Shear product. Pictured above is a time lapse of Baron shear data as the storm tracked eastward.
The tornado that impacted Siren, WI, on June 18, 2001 was accurately tracked by the Baron Shear product. Pictured above is a time lapse of Baron shear data as the storm tracked eastward.