All EWP Blog posts describe work done in an experimental setting (not official operations) and may include fictitious events and/or activities.
An official website of the United States government
Here’s how you know
Official websites use .gov A
.gov website belongs to an official government
organization in the United States.
Secure .gov websites use HTTPS A
lock (
) or https:// means you’ve safely connected to
the .gov website. Share sensitive information only on official,
secure websites.
As we watched the storms move through central Oklahoma today a small, isolated cell developed over Lawton, Oklahoma. This storm conveniently gave us the opportunity to show the effectiveness of total lightning observations in helping gain lead-time ahead of the first cloud-to-ground lightning strike. This small cell turned out to be even more interesting as the PGLM observations gave a 29 minute lead-time over the first cloud-to-ground strike. This was pretty remarkable as the lead time is usually on the order of 5-10 minutes. Below are three images showing the event.
FIGURE 1: A four panel display in AWIPS from 2055 UTC on 11 May 2011. Going clockwise from the upper-left is the radar reflectivity, PGLM flash extent density, PGLM maximum flash density, and NLDN cloud-to-ground lightning strike observations. A single flash just southwest of Lawton (KLAW) can be seen in the PGLM flash extent density and no cloud-ground strikes are observed with the Lawton cell.FIGURE 2: The same as FIGURE 1, except for the time is 2100 UTC. The PGLM flash extent shows two flashes and the radar reflectivity has strengthened.FIGURE 3: The same as FIGURE 1, except for the time is 2124 UTC. The radar reflectivity has increased more and the PGLM flash extent density shows several flashes. The NLDN cloud-to-ground lightning observations finally shows a single, negative cloud-to-ground strike just to the northeast of Lawton, Oklahoma. This PGLM gave a tremendous 29 minute lead time on this first strike.
