Comments on “A Simple Model for Simulating Tornado Damage in Forests”

• Published in: Journal of applied meteorology (1988) 2008-02, Vol.47 (2), p.726-731
• Main Authors: Dotzek, Nikolai, Peterson, Richard E., Feuerstein, Bernold, Hubrig, Martin
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Subjects: Forestry research; Meteorology; Meteors; Modeling; NOTES AND CORRESPONDENCE; Simulations; Storm damage; Storms; Studies; Tornadoes; Trees; Weather; Wind
• ISSN: 1558-8424; 0894-8763; 1558-8432; 1520-0450
• DOI: 10.1175/2007JAMC1730.1

(2006) refer to Letzmann's work as "experimenting" with various model parameters and emphasize several times his "hand drawn" diagrams and "hand calculations," the reader may get the false impression that Letzmann had received his results merely by chance, instead of by the rigorous analytical calculations he performed in his Ph.D. thesis and that also extend the wind-field description by Holland et al. In section 2, we sketch the historical context under which Letzmann pursued his studies, briefly review his analytical tornado wind-field model, and call attention to his guidelines for tornado research and damage surveys, which were approved by the International Meteorological Organisation (IMO) in 1937. Letzmann's tornado research related to forest damage Forest damage has traditionally been taken into account when tornadoes or other severe-wind events were investigated in Europe [see, e.g., Martins 1850; Reye 1872; Wegener 1917; or very recently, the International Conference on Wind Effects on Trees in 2003 (www.ifh.uni-karlsruhe.de/science/aerodyn/windconf. htm) and Hubrig 2004].