Paul Knightley wrote in message ...
:We've been discussing this in TORRO...looking at the radar for the
:time, I believe this storm formed along or just ahead of the cold
:front. There was some evidence of a "hook" echo on radar, around the
:time of the tornado. For what it's worth, I think it's a supercell
:tornado - there is evidence of a rear flank downdraught on some of the
ictures.

Matthias Jaeneke - a former forecaster with the German Weather Service DWD -
has posted a superb analysis in German (illustrated with charts and radar
pictures) of events leading to the tornado on the Wetterzentrale Forum
http://www.wetter-zentrale.com/cgi-b...ames;read=5371
54

The Micheln tornado is estimated at F3 on the Fujita scale. Its effects
were even greater than those of the Acht tornado (Eifel area) in June 2002.
Wind speeds may have reached 300 km/hr.

Nearly 300 buildings in Micheln and the nearby village of Trebbichau were
damaged - some very badly. Five houses were rendered uninhabitable.
There were few injuries as the tornado struck at 18.45 local time (16.45
UTC) when most people were indoors eating their evening meal. A man and
his wife running for shelter as the tornado approached were thrown about 20
metres. The man was flung into a house wall and suffered injuries needing
hospital treatment.

Certainly 5 and perhaps 7 tornadoes were reported in Germany last Wednesday
23 June. A tornado of possibly F2 intensity occurred at Marne near
Dithmarschen in northern Germany (12.00 UTC). Weaker tornadoes were
reported on the island of Borkum (13.45 UTC), at Greetsiel near Emden (09.30
UTC) and Löningen-Menslage near Papenburg.

By 12.00 UTC on Wednesday the cold front had already reached the eastern
border of Germany in the north. Between 06.00 and 12.00 UTC 2 squall lines
with showers and thunderstorms developed in an area of strong wind shear
(wind strength increasing with height) behind the cold front. The Micheln
tornado developed on the first of these 2 squall lines. A supercell seems
to have been involved and a "hook" echo was visible on the radar.

Other links

http://www.naturgefahren.de/micheln.htm Click on each photo on the left
for further photos by the same photographer

Hook echo on radar
http://www.wetter-zentrale.com/cgi-b...ames;read=5357
80

More radar pictures
http://www.wetter-zentrale.com/cgi-b...ames;read=5371
04

Video of the tornado to download - 6.33 MB MPEG.
http://www.sturmjaeger.de.vu/ Click on the red link "Tornado" above the
photos. On the same site the links 1 2 3 4 5 and 1 2 3 lead to sets of
photos.

Many photos here http://www.mkchilis.com/micheln/index.htm and here
http://www.naturgewalten.de/040624micheln.htm

The white blocks on some of the photos are expanded polystyrene. A factory
making insulating material was badly damaged by the tornado and a large
number of blocks of expanded polystyrene were scattered over a wide area -
some were found 8 km beyond the end of its track.

Colin Youngs
Brussels