A strong, long-track, Romanian tornado

We document the first recorded tornado in more than 100 years in Romania, a country that has denied for sometime that they had tornadoes at all. A variety of observations are used to determine the storm phenomenon that was responsible for at least three fatalities, a large but undetermined number of injuries, and at least 33 homes destroyed and 395 damaged. In addition to examining the synoptic and mesoscale environment through conventional data and a mesoscale numerical model, we also use the reflectivity data from a C-band Doppler weather radar. The first known ground storm damage survey in Romanian history is employed, as well as numerous eyewitness accounts obtained during this survey. This report presents the supporting data and analyses for our findings. Those findings establish the parent storm as a classic supercell moving out of Bulgaria from 225° at 25 m s−1 and crossing the country. However, most importantly, we present evidence for a long-track (74+ km), wide (averaging 1 km), and strong (F3+) tornado that was responsible for the damage.