On Sunday, April 19, in the afternoon, a weak tornado appeared east of Jičín in the Královohradecky region during a rainstorm. The Czech Hydrometeorological Institute informed about it on the social network.
Czech meteorologists specified that the tornado occurred around half past six in the evening in the area of the villages of Studeňany, Úlibice and Radim. “Conditions seemed to be locally suitable for the formation of a tornado. Especially high humidity in the boundary layer of the atmosphere up to about 2 km, moderate instability (instability) and also more pronounced flow in the surface up to 1.5 km,” they described.
The experts added that such weak tornadoes are common and occur regularly in the Czech Republic every year. “In terms of intensity, however, we cannot compare it at all with the devastating tornado of 2021,” they noted.
They also disproved the widely established myth that a tornado “launches” from a cloud and then touches the ground. It is not true, as the mechanism of formation is different. “Before the tornado funnel becomes visible (due to the pressure drop), there must already be a vorticity (vortex) near the ground, which is only gradually strengthened by certain mechanisms (similar to when a figure skater hangs). Paradoxically, a tornado is formed in the opposite direction – from the ground” explained the meteorologists.
