Community Corner
DC-Bethesda-Chevy Chase 'Tornado Hole'?
A map of tornado warnings issued across the DC area since 2002 suggests an interesting "tornado hole" above much of Bethesda, Chevy Chase and Washington, DC.
A Washington Post Capital Weather Gang blog map of tornado warnings issued across the DC area since 2002 suggests an interesting "tornado hole" (an absence of tornado warnings) above much of Bethesda, Chevy Chase and Washington, DC.
The map was developed using tornado warning data from the Iowa Environmental Mesonet archive page by Kathryn Prociv, a Capital Weather Gang contributor who teaches geography and meteorology for Northern Virginia Community College.
Several Post readers commented on the tornado hole.
Find out what's happening in Bethesda-Chevy Chasewith free, real-time updates from Patch.
"Many people are remarking on the tornado hole. Quite interesting since before I mapped it out I never noticed the lack of tornadoes for downtown!" Prociv wrote in the comment section.
Prociv wasn't sure if there was a connection to the urban heat island effect—in which cities can be warmer than surrounding suburbia because of cities' greater concentration of buildings and paved surfaces (i.e., stuff made out of brick, concrete, asphalt and the like), which absorb and retain heat.
Find out what's happening in Bethesda-Chevy Chasewith free, real-time updates from Patch.
"Tough call though to make conclusive statements whether or not the urban heat island has an effect of not [on the tornado hole]," she wrote another comment.
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