Lightning Jump Leading Rapid Intensification

With convection largely staying south of the OAX area, have been watching convection in the TOP area. Saw a really good use of the Lightning Jump Detection Algorithm showing a rapid increase in lighting with the cell in northeast Kansas. At 1941Z, the cell was fairly weak with modest lightning.

20150504_1941Z_OAXRadar_LightningJumprobSevere

As the initial cell weakened and a second cell developed to the east the lightning diminished and then rapidly increased at 1951Z producing a significant lightning jump (6 sigma).

20150504_1951Z_OAXRadar_LightningJumpProbSevere

The ProbSevere product was trailing at this time due to the rapid increase (<5%), but within 15 minutes it rapidly increased to over 90% at 2005Z.

20150504_2005Z_OAXRadar_LightningJumpProbSevere

While I wasn’t looking closely at the radar data while producing a previous blog post, that rapid increase shown in the lightning jump algorithm really caught my attention and showed me that it was something to checkout. -SRF

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