Short-term Prediction Research
and Transition Center

Total lightning products for NWS forecast offices

Realtime lightning measurements are provided to the NWS offices (HUN, BHM, OHX) every 2 min. Lightning ''sources' (points detected along lightning channels), obtained by NASA's North Alabama Lightning Mapping Array (NALMA) , are gridded onto a 2 km by 2 km horizontal, 1 km vertical grid every 2 minutes. The data are then obtained by the individual NWS offices. The data are provided in a format compatible with the Advanced Weather Information Processing System (AWIPS), so that forecasters can view the lightning data concurrently with other data sources (radar, satellite, etc.) on AWIPS workstations. Forecasters key in to the variations in lightning activity within a storm to determine changes in storm intensity. Several correct warning decisions have been attributed to information obtained from the total lightning data. Two case studies on how the NWS forecasters in HUN utilize the NALMA data have been sent to the Southern Region WES case library (http://www.srh.noaa.gov/ssd/DRT-AWIPS/html/Available_Cases.html), although neither has been posted yet. A presentation on the LMA is available here (I can give you the presentation by Chris and Priscilla Bridenstine- it's in powerpoint).

In 2006, a demonstration network was deployed in the Washington, D.C. area (DCLMA). The data from the DCLMA network is sent to the Sterling, VA NWS forecast office so that they can view the lightning data on their AWIPS workstations. The DCLMA grids are at 1 km by 1 km horizontal, 1 km vertical resolution and are produced every 1 minute.

One Hour Density

Previous LMA lightning imagery