Boston Globe's Weather Madness Tournament Advances to Final Four Phenomena

The Boston Globe launched a reader-voting tournament called 'Weather Madness' this week, inspired by the NCAA basketball tournament involving teams such as UCLA and Michigan. The event began with 16 weather phenomena competing in a bracket format. Readers vote to advance their preferred phenomena through head-to-head matchups.

In the first two rounds, participants eliminated 12 phenomena based on votes. The tournament highlights various weather events, including their formation and characteristics. The current round features two matchups: tornado versus hurricane, and aurora versus supercell.

Tornadoes form from rapid changes in wind direction and speed along a frontal boundary, where warm, moist air lifts over a cold front, creating condensation and a rotating column of air. They are characterized by fast, violent rotation and concentrated destruction.

Hurricanes develop as rotating clusters of thunderstorms over warm ocean waters with low wind shear, forming around a low-pressure center and sustaining for days with wind, rain, and storm surge.

The aurora, or northern lights, results from solar magnetized particles interacting with Earth's magnetic field, producing glowing waves in green and purple hues.

Supercells are long-lived thunderstorms with strong rotating updrafts, known as mesocyclones, that can generate large hail, damaging winds, and tornadoes. These storms sustain themselves through persistent updrafts. Voting for Round 3 opened following the second round's results, where tornado advanced over thundersnow, hurricane over lightning, aurora over polar vortex, and supercell over nor’easter.

The tournament will continue until one phenomenon is selected as the most epic. Readers can participate via the Boston Globe's platform. This event engages the public in learning about meteorological processes.