Courelinhas Tornado (Coruche municipality), 13th November 2014
2014-11-18 (IPMA)
Regarding the strong wind episode referred in the statement posted on the 14th November 2014 at the IPMA homepage, it was possible to gather more relevant evidence concerning the observed destruction and affected locations.
The nature of the locally observed damage on trees and buildings is compatible with the occurrence of a tornado. According to the diagnosed damage path, the tornado vortex maintained contact with the ground along, at least, 3 km, for a total estimated period between 2:30 and 3:00 minutes, just before 20 UTC.
Given the propagation speed of the parent cloud, it is estimated that the tornado has affected each location just for a few seconds. Courelinhas was located right within the tornado damage path. Widespread damage to trees, some big branches twisted or snapped off, some of the bigger trees snapped or uprooted, some weak outbuildings destroyed and some heavier debris carried airborne at considerable distance, allowed to classify the Courelinhas tornado as an F1/T3 tornado, according to the joint use of the Fujita (F) and Torro (T) scales. This corresponds to an estimation of the maximum instantaneous wind (gust, 3s) in the range between 42 m/s and 51 m/s or between about 151 km/h and 184 km/h.
Doppler radar observations of the Coruche/Cruz do Leão radar allowed the identification of the supercell structure type to which the tornado was associated with. The mesocyclone corresponding to this supercell is visible in the image, by 19:56 UTC.
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