Here are some of the questions we hope to attempt answering:
1) How common are storms in Bangladesh and East India?
2) What are the storm types? In Bangladesh all severe storms are referred to as Nor’westers based on the direction they came from (or Kalboishakhi). We would like to figure out how common supercells, pulse storms, MCS, QLCS, Squall lines and Derechos are in the region.
3) Are tornadoes common? How often do they really occur? We know that every couple years a devastating tornado happens. But storms appear to be relatively common and damaging storm reports including destruction of thousands of houses and mass uprooting of trees (many times after nightfall) may suggest either severe wind events or nightfall tornadoes.
4) There is a lot of questions regarding tornado intensity. Because many homes in Bangladesh are built of tin sheets and have little structural support. But this does not rule out their being intense tornadoes, there has been destruction of reasonably built structures as well reports of heavy objects being tossed long distances. The mass casualties also suggest high-speed projectile debris.
5) Are there any unique characteristics of the storms of Bangladesh? With upwards of 9000 J/KG MLCAPE and LI’s occasionally up in the -15C range it appears that extremely large hail may be possible.
6) We already know from the work of Jon Finch that outflow boundaries are extremely common in the early Spring and that this more often than not serves as the focus for development and possibly tornadogenesis. Does the Padma river also serve as an effective boundary? How many of the severe storms result from dryline initiation vs outflow or just without the aid of a boundary?
7) What is the nature of the lightning (high levels of + strikes, activity level, etc). We do know the country suffers many deaths on an annual basis but we believe this is likely due to the lack of grounding and the highly conductive construction of the homes.
And last but not least, is Bangladesh chaseable? Is this a place storm chasers will be able to visit? Can someone successfully move quick enough to actually catch or position out of a storm? Are visibilities decent enough outside of Dhaka?
And the adventure of a lifetime…
