Lightning Jump in GLM FED, but not Earth Networks data

Storms continue just after 7pm near the Oklahoma/Texas border. A currently severe-warned storm saw a substantial and rapid increase in lightning activity observed by the GLM Flash Extent Density product. However, the ground based lightning network did not follow the same trend and remained fairly steady. The ground based data is more reasonable considering the storm did not experience any sort of significant strengthening during this time period. Earlier discussions with lightning detection experts suggested the low GLM FED count may be due to the location of lightning within the storm updraft region, which could impact how well GLM can sense it. That is difficult for the typical operational meteorologist to consider in real-time since it goes well beyond current training, and leads to decreased forecast confidence in the lightning data.

Dave Grohl