Vortices may initiate bow echo wind damage

The recent Bow Echo and MCV Experiment (BAMEX) was carried out to better understand how bow echoes create surface wind damage. One such event occurred on 10 June 2003 over the greater Saint Louis, Missouri, area. This bow echo created a swath of F0 damage 50 km in length and 8 km in width. Superosition of the damage survey results onto single-Doppler data revealed that primary damage swath is evident north of the apex, collocated with a small-scale, low-level vortex that formed on the leading edge of the bow echo. The convective system produced a total of 11 such vortices.