Satellite Loop of March 2, 2012 Tornadoes

March 2, 2012 Satellite Loop (NASA Earth Observatory)

The above video is from the NASA Earth Observatory. It shows the Satellite Loop from the line of supercells that swept through the Midwest, spawning deadly tornadoes on March 2, 2012. You can see the exit region of the jet stream very clearly when the cloud cover begins to form a funnel shape. This is where the tornadoes formed in the warm sector across the Midwest.

The image you see here is the surface analysis of March 2, 2012 at 4:00pm. You can see very clearly the warm sector (the area of mild air) between the cold and the warm front. This warm raising air is one of the many factors acting as fuel which allowing the tornadoes to spin up within their supercells.

The image you see here is a still from the satellite loop video at the top of the page. Just like in the first video, you can see the funnel shape the cloud cover has taken on. This is the exit region of the jet stream, and is where the supercells are located. You can very clearly a few individual supercells at the narrow region of the funnel (cloud patches)