Correlating Lightning to Severe Local Storms in the Northeastern United States

Abstract

Two tornado events and an intense downburst episode were investigated in an attempt to relate cloud-to-ground lightning rates with the occurrence of severe local storms. The State University of New York at Albany lightning detection system was used to yield characteristic lightning rate tendencies and particular lightning signatures that were associated with severe storms in the northeastern United States. Tornadoes and large hail occurred about 10–15 min after a pronounced peak in the 5-min cloud-to-ground lightning rate. In the downburst event, very destructive winds occurred just after the 5-min rate peaked. Because these severe local storm activities followed well-defined peaks in the 5-min cloud-to-ground lightning rate, it may be possible that the 5-min rates could be used operationally to forecast severe weather.