Verification of Coastal Lightning Event Types Using Sounding Data Along Coastal California
Abstract
Predicting coastal lightning events in California is tough to do and has been an issue in the forecasting community for some time. In a 2018 study for the Naval Postgraduate School, Schlosberg found three characteristic event types using model analysis that could help to identify potential coastal lightning events. The problem with data from model analyses is that they have inherent biases in their diagnosis of convective parameters such as convective available potential energy (CAPE) because of low-level temperature and moisture uncertainties in gridded analyses. The work in this paper uses sounding data taken across coastal California to verify the findings of the three characteristic event types found in Schlosbergs 2018 study. The goal was to confirm the event type characteristics in the soundings as well as CAPE and convective inhibition (CIN) profiles for lightning events along coastal California from 2005 to 2011. This study verified the majority of Schlosbergs results across all event types. However, a difference in our results was that cold-core low events generally had larger CAPE values than jet-type events.
Document Details
- Document Type
- Technical Report
- Publication Date
- Jun 01, 2020
- Accession Number
- AD1114698
Entities
People
- Joshua Quinnett
Organizations
- Naval Postgraduate School