Tornado Genesis as a Phase-Locked Atmospheric System

This paper proposes a mechanistic framework for tornado genesis based on atmospheric phase locking rather than ingredient presence alone. While many supercells achieve transient vertical alignment, only a subset maintain that alignment in a temporally stable, phase-locked configuration. We introduce three related measures: the Alignment Index (AI), the Locked Alignment Index (LAI), and Lock Margin (LM), which together distinguish tornadic supercells from near-miss cases. Empirical case comparisons show that alignment persistence, not peak alignment magnitude, discriminates tornadic outcomes. The framework is explanatory and post-event, not an operational forecasting model. It reframes tornado genesis as a low-entropy stability transition in a nonlinear atmospheric system, consistent with known meteorological dynamics while clarifying why similar storms diverge in outcome.