ENI lightning data has been useful at times today.  However, when monitoring lightning jumps all forecasters must exercise caution. The charts can be misleading when tracking cells. Watching the last hour of data in SJT, one can see lightning cells converge, causing a tremendous spike in lightning strikes.  This could lead a forecaster to believe the storm is strengthening, when in fact data is being absorbed. A forecaster must use different tools and further investigate to ensure lightning jumps are indeed really happening.

Panel 1 shows a lightning jump.

This image shows how two different cells later converged according to ENI leading to an unwarranted lightning jump.

UFFSU