Cell Tracking Merger Lightning Time Series

Two separate thunderstorms developed across south west Oklahoma. Using the lightning cell tracking feature, you can see a good lightning jump. However, an artificial decrease in the total flash rate occurred because of the cell tracking algorithm. The first image below shows the time series.

cell_merger_tracking

The rapid decrease around 1900z corresponds to the image below when the cell tracking feature tries to merge the two separate storms.

cell_merger_tracking2

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