Topic: Most Active Parts of Storms for CG lightning activity

[Mike]

Another question re lightning activity:

  I have a collection of DVDs from storm chaser Mike Hollingshead from USA and on some of the supercell video there's these huge bolts that emit from the side of the structure (mothership) but are what he describes as 'super bolts'  Now, i don't know if this is something that he's just tagged because there is no description for them, but the lightning is twice as bright and twice as lethal.  So have you, Jimmy or other more experience observers ever seen this type of activity?

  Viewing them they just look so sureal - absolutely massive flashes from the storm that eclipse other strong CGs striking and they are not CC flashes either - these are single strikes that don't even ground to earth - they just come out of nowhere!

cheers.

[Jimmy Deguara]

Mike,

US storms are always full of surprises. Once you have a very organised supercell, you will realise its energy!

For some more samples of superbolts - try the sequence from this violent mothership supercell - go down to 27th May 2001:

http://www.australiasevereweather.com/video/tornado_alley_videos.htm

This is available on the  Tornado Alley 2001 DVD

Regards,

Jimmy Deguara

[orage]

Hi everyone

A couple of post back you were talking about anvil crwlers.

I was just wondering what an anvil crawler is.

Thanks
 

[Jimmy Deguara]

Anvil crawlers are lightning that crawl along the anvil or base of a storm usually in its weakened state. Here are a couple of examples I took in the US.



Sometimes the anvil crawler also puts down a cloud to ground lightning bolt. Also I note that this storm had the anvil crawlers along the front part of the anvil - the storm itself was strong to severe!



Regards,

Jimmy Deguara

[orage]

So, if it doesn't put down a CG stike, it is classed as a cloud-cloud strike, right?

[Mike]

Orage, you're right. (correct me if i'm at all wrong anyone)

You can have what looks like CC lighting but was actually a CG.  especially at night when you can't see the storm(s).  They could be side by side, behind or hidden from your view.  CC lightning is also referred to as intra-cloud lightning because it's just electrical activity from within the cloud itself and also from discharges from one cloud to another.

 CGs don't necessarily have to come from the base of a storm - as in the rain shaft - they can come from the circumference of the cloud from the anvil to the ground, from within or beneath.  Remember that you have positive and negative charges throughout the cloud and around and beneath it, so lightning can emit from anywhere - that's why it's so unpredictable!

When you see a thunderhead lit up like a light bulb it's more than likely CC.  even between storms you see CC discharging as it leaps from cloud to cloud to find a connection.  However, you can have CC lightning that can discharge as a CG at the same time if it finds a conductive path!  It all depends on the maturity, structure, atmosphere of the storm and its surrounds.

In short, yes you're right.  There's literally millions of paths electricity can choose from.  I hope I explained that in layman's terms - makes sense to me!

Mike

[Mike]

Here's another question for you.  Is there a particular name for the storm cell or cells that continually discharge CC lightning many times per second continuously for hours on end with occasional CG strikes?

We've had them for the past several days in the rural area - long line of them just going off!

Mike

[Jimmy Deguara]

Mike,

Acording to my knowledge thus far, I don't know of any attmepts to ctaegorise storms according to lightning behaviour - moreso based on severe weather potential. Having said this, one can sometimes get a feel for the type of lightning behaviour a storm will sometimes exhibit.

Regards,

Jimmy Deguara

[Mike]

Thanks Jimmy, i suppose what i really should have asked is what conditions present in the storms discharging this much activity favour such activity?  Perhaps it's just a decent amount of generous indices favouring them.  (We've got more about an hour away this evening in the rural area heading our way, so I'm off to check them out about 30km down the track. )

The storms aren't overly huge, very low level ones in fact and not huge towers with large anvils as the norm here - they're just a grouping of middle level storms moving slowly and at times almost stationary for one to two hours before shifting.

Frankly with this amount of lightning activity one should not question why, but just enjoy!  Just interested to see if certain conditions favoured these storms.

Mike

[Jimmy Deguara]

In my opinion, as I would have alerted in a previous discussion, each storm event has conditions that exhibit specific lightning behaviour. CC lightning usually becomes particularly active in very unstable conditions with high CAPE but also can be present with rapid destabilisation. Not necessarily do you require the whole atmosphere to be very unstable - mid level instability can also be favourable for active cloud to cloud lightning.

Regards,

Jimmy Deguara

[striker92]

Generally speaking, Lightning will always follow the path of least resistance.

The presence of a rain curtain, or shaft will probably indicate the likelihood of lightning occurring there, this is simply because air is quite a good insulator, then again I have noticed on the storms I have observed when there is a rain column this is usually in a part of the cloud where there is less electrical activity.... then again you will often see lightning strikes occur just ahead of rain, it really seems to be down to the atmospheric conditions on the day, but water being a much better conductor of electricity than air would seem to be the most likely area for lightning to occur, this may be why much more lightning is sheet lightning then CGs

[Mike]

Re staccato lightning:  Is there a reason why this type of lightning is so quick and branched?  Believe it or not i've only seen one this year as we were chasing a storm into town and saw it in front of us.  Is there a reason why they're not 'the norm' and are there specific conditions that assist in this type of lightning or is it just one of those things that one is lucky to capture on video or camera at the time?

Mike

Edit: Corrected the spelling of staccato:)

[Michael Bath]

I can't find much info on the subject from a couple of Google searches. However, it would appear quick to the eye as it consists of only one return stroke. 

MB

[Jimmy Deguara]

Mike,

Staccato lightning from what I have observed are more likely in drier atmospheric conditions and also higher based storms. One would assume that electrical potential in the staccato case of lightning would not be as high? High energy lightning often exhibits multiple pulsing bolts discussed in another thread.

Regards,

Jimmy Deguara