100+ researchers. 5 weeks. 40 research vehicles. 10,000 miles. And, some pretty violent weather.Today, I’m pleased to share information about VORTEX2, the largest, most ambitious attempt in history to understand the secrets of tornadoes and the supercell thunderstorms that produce them.This two-year, $11.9-million research project, funded by NOAA and the National Science Foundation, seeks to answer questions that continue to vex scientists:
How do tornadoes form? 
Why do some severe thunderstorms produce tornadoes and others do not? 
How can we tell exactly when a tornado will form and how long it will last? 
Why conduct an experiment of such magnitude? The short answer is 12–15 minutes — the average time it takes for a tornado to touch down after a warning is issued. By piecing together a more precise 3-dimensional picture of supercells and the process by which tornadoes are created (known as tornadogenesis), NOAA researchers and their partners hope to considerably improve warning times that will save more lives.For five weeks in May and June, seasoned storm-chasing scientists from NOAA’s National Severe Storms Laboratory (NSSL) and National Weather Service’s Warning Decision Training Branch, along with partners from 10 universities, three nonprofit organizations and 25 reporters from local and national media outlets, traversed the nine-state “tornado alley” region of the Central Plains in a 40-vehicle caravan searching for, quite literally, the perfect storm. After weather briefings each morning from various members of the VORTEX 2 steering committee, including NSSL’s Dr. Lou Wicker and retired NOAA meteorologist Don Burgess from OU's Cooperative Institute for Mesoscale Meteorological Studies, the research armada set out together to form an observational network around that day’s target storm. VORTEX2 builds on the original VORTEX field study, conducted in 1994–1995, which debunked the notion that severe thunderstorms observed rotating near the ground automatically produce tornadoes. VORTEX2 relies on state-of-the-art vans and trucks mounted with the latest weather-tracking instruments (“mobile mesonets”) and 10 mobile radars — several of which were built in part by NSSL engineers and scientists. The operation is wholly mobile. A roving command center coordinates the entire fleet of research vehicles fitted with sophisticated communications software that allows scientists, many conducting individual experiments, to track each other and collect data in real-time. To help coordinate logistics and safety, Dr. Wicker, along with NSSL’s Dr. Mike Coniglio and Patrick Marsh, manned the VORTEX2 Operations Center.Chasing after violent thunderstorms while collecting valuable, accurate data along the way is a difficult and dangerous task. Rapidly changing weather conditions require teams to alter their activities (and location) at a moment’s notice. Researchers work 12–14 hours a day inside their vehicles, where they monitor supercells that may or may not morph into full-blown tornadoes. As Dr. Wicker says, “You have to test tornadogenesis hypotheses formulated from storms that caused tornadoes by using data from storms that did not. That’s how good science emerges.”It wasn’t until June 5 when the exhausted crews hit the mother lode: a classic yet spectacular tornado, producing winds of up to 135 miles per hour and softball-sized hail, touched down in an unpopulated area outside of La Grange, Wyoming. For those watching The Weather Channel’s coverage of VORTEX2, live broadcasts of the tornado became “must-see” TV. The tornado was, by all accounts, a goldmine for capturing a full complement of surface and radar data the teams were seeking. Dr. Wicker is hopeful that the vast VORTEX2 data — more than a terabyte’s worth — will lead to improved tornado warnings, watches and forecasting operations at the NWS in as soon as three to four years.He expects that in the next 10 years, the insights gained from VORTEX2 might allow NWS forecasters to issue tornado warnings as much as 30–60 minutes in advance. For those of you who missed this year’s chase, VORTEX2 hits the road again May 1–June 15, 2010. In the meantime, visit the VORTEX2 Web sites, www.nssl.noaa.gov/VORTEX2 and www.VORTEX2.org, for a list of participants, image galleries, video footage, the “V2 Talk” blog, a video interview with Dr. Wicker, a podcast with both Dr. Wicker and Don Burgess and other resources.
Sincerely,

Dr. Jane Lubchenco
Under Secretary of Commerce for Oceans and Atmosphere and NOAA Administrator
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