Hi guys,
This is something that I thought was worthy of a thread topic. I have noticed in many "atmospherically colder" storms that crawler lightning tends to become more active than CG. I have seen a few cells exhibit these characteristics over the years, particularly in the dying stages where temperature cooling has caused, not so much a weakening in activity, but a weakening in CG activity and seeing crawlers becoming predominant.
My thoughts were, that it may be due to a collapse in the upper structure of the storm with colder inflow stopping the updraft and bringing upper (anvil) and lower levels closer and reducing the charge capacity low enough to stop cloud-ground arcing? Can the storm itself cause it's own demise by lowering the surrounding temperatures?
The recent storms we had showed this particularly well, with highly active CG as the storms approached in the afternoon (with temps in the low 30's) and with the obvious falling temperatures (down to 18degrees or so) we saw nothing but crawler activity until the storms had depleted.
Perhaps you have seen or noticed something similar, so any discussion and thoughts put forward are much appreciated
Regards and take care.
Shauno
