FL-LDAR domain: Lightning Jumps & HWT 3DVAR and Tor Warnings

Lightning activity has been prevalent in the FL-LDAR domain today and the ltg jump alg has detected multiple jumps in range of the domain.  Scale_0 seems to be the most stable at keeping the storms ID’s unique while scale_1 seems to be dealing with lots of mergers/splits.

In the past half hour (2230-2300 UTC) at least 3 jumps have been detected at scale_0:  cell IDs: 31025 @ 2242 UTC, 31107 @ 2245 UTC, and 31184 @ 2248 UTC (additional jumps likely occurred prior to this time).

Storm clusters at scale_0 at 2242 UTC. Cell 31025 was the primary storm of interest in the testbed.

The main cell of interest for forecasters in the HWT operating in the MLB domain has been #31025.  3DVAR products depicted increases in max updraft and vorticity as early as 2230 when the domain was re-centered over the storm.  The storm maintained its strength through over the next half hour and the forecaster opted to continue the warning at 2256 UTC (the first TOR warning issued in the HWT was at 2225 UTC, see the forecaster post associated with these warnings for more info).  The screenshots below from AWIPS2 include lightning, 3DVAR, MRMS & KMLB radar data for this event:

AWIPS2 screenshot 2245 UTC. Top left: 3DVAR max updraft composite; Top right: MRMS Refl @-10C, pGLM lightning flash extent density, & 1-min NLDN CG data; bottom left: MRMS MESH; bottom right: 3DVAR updraft helicity and 2 km winds

At the time the tor warning was issued in the HWT:

AWIPS2 screenshot.
AWIPS2 screenshot @2257 UTC: Top left: pGLM flash extent density and 1-min NLDN CG data; top right: pGLM flash initiations & Tor warning; bottom left: refl @-10C; bottom right: KMLB 0.5 deg refl

Even as the clusters have become a bit more muddled, the storm tracking algorithm has seemed to maintain a good handle on individual clusters at scale_0, though some of the cell ID’s have changed…

WDSSII image at 2324 UTC: Left: Refl at lowest altitude and lightning flash contours; right: scale_0 storm clusters overlaid on pGLM flash extent density.

SHAVE is also operational today over this same area… current reports include 1 in hail and high wind:

SHAVE data between 2200 and 0000 UTC in the Kennedy Space Center domain. Gray H circles correspond to no hail, green H circles 1 in hail, and blue W circles severe wind. Reports include 1 in hail piled against side of house & dents to truck.

Technical difficulties of note: the KML images are not currently updating on the webpage, but should be back up in the next day or two; it is also possible that cron job notification of a python script stopped running mid-day on 2 May 2012 and data between 2 May and 14 May, may need to be reprocessed to assure that jumps occurred within the network range.

-K. Calhoun