Texas Tech University Atmospheric Science Group

⚡Scientist Spotlight⚡

Today, on International Day of Women and Girls in Science, we’re proud to highlight Dr. Kelcy Brunner, who has been advancing discovery at Texas Tech since 2021. Her research focuses on lightning physics, instrumentation, and thunderstorm microphysics—connecting detailed observations to fundamental physics to better understand how lightning forms and propagates. She is currently developing the Slow Antenna lightning array, allowing researchers to map lightning in entirely new ways and observe even the smallest electrical discharges. Dr. Brunner’s work not only pushes scientific boundaries but also supports more accurate forecasting and helps ensure critical resources are in place when severe storms impact our communities.

🌪️💻Simulation Snapshot💻🌪️

This numerical simulation, led by Dr. Faiaz Khaled, captures a tornado-like vortex (TLV) using Large Eddy Simulation (LES) in a wind tunnel setting. The modeled vortex includes realistic translation speed and key characteristics observed in real tornadoes.

The simulation is validated against experiments conducted in the University of Florida boundary-layer wind tunnel, helping bridge the gap between numerical modeling and physical testing.

This work represents an exciting research frontier that advances our understanding of tornado-like vortices and their impacts on the built environment.

NWI and the West Texas Mesonet have officially announced, in alignment with SB-5, their planned expansion throughout the Hill Country—an area of Texas that is highly prone to destructive flash flooding. We extend our best wishes to our colleagues as they continue their dedicated efforts to deliver high-quality, publicly accessible weather data that supports the protection of life and property.

Did you know our TTU Hurricane Research Team (TTUHRT) deployed on Hurricane Laura this week? The team was able to deploy 36 StickNets and capture mobile Doppler Radar data of the storm as she made landfall! It was excellent work by the team making Hurricane Laura one of the most measured major hurricane to make landfall in the United States.

Hurricane Research Team Tracking Laura as Storm Makes Landfall in Louisiana Researchers from Texas Tech University’s Hurricane Research Team (TTUHRT) are tracking Hurricane Laura, which made landfall in Louisiana overnight as a Category 4.

It's going to be a beautiful West Texas Spring day tomorrow! The Lubbock National Weather Service is predicting 63 degrees F and Sunny, so it will be a great day to head over to the Science Spectrum for Severe Weather Awareness Day! As a reminder, it is a completely FREE event on March 7th from 10AM to 4PM

Do you want to be a trained weather spotter and help our NWS forecasters warn and verify severe weather events across West Texas? There will be an official NWS Skywarn Weather Spotter Training session at Severe Weather Awareness Day at the Science Spectrum on Saturday, March 7th at 1:00PM. Come learn about how to identify severe weather!

Meteorological Spring is here! For residents of West Texas, we know that Spring often comes with severe weather. Are you or your family fascinated by the weather and storms we get in Texas? Do you want to learn more about how we understand and study the atmosphere? Are you just looking for something fun to do with the kids this weekend?

Then you should come to our annual Severe Weather Awareness Day at the Science Spectrum Center this Saturday, March 7th from 10AM to 4PM! This is a completely free event where the kids can participate with educational weather activities, check out different local agencies that help the community during severe weather events, meet with the forecasters who keep us safe, and even get a chance to be a TV meteorologist!

We will have one of our mobile radar trucks and some of our portable, rapidly-deployable weather stations (known as StickNets) set up, so come see us this weekend at the Science Spectrum!

Our radar crews successfully sampled a tornadic supercell thunderstorm this afternoon in SW Nebraska in coordination with the . Coordinated samples with mobile radars, mesonet vehicles, unmanned aircraft, and the NOAA P3 aircraft occurred over the lifetime of the storm.

Recently, our realtime deterministic WRF model went through an upgrade to version 4. Along with the software change, we upgraded our web graphics to a modern Python-based package. Visit the new model page: http://www.atmo.ttu.edu/bancell/real_time_WRF/ttuwrfhome.php

Our winter storm last week focused the most measurable snowfall over and just to the north and east of Lubbock, with these areas receiving 7-11" of snowfall. Lubbock's annual average snowfall is 8"!

Our new weather satellites are able to see snowfall on the ground with terrific clarity, and you can see an example from last week in this post from the National Weather Service office here in Lubbock

Teams have begun the journey to northern Alabama in support of VORTEXSE. Beginning Wednesday, we will begin deploying our StesoNet across northern AL and southern TN to sample the near-surface characteristics of the atmosphere preceding severe storms. Stay tuned for more updates as the project continues!