Comparisons between total lightning data, mesocylone strength, and storm damage associated with the Florida tornado outbreak of February 23 1998


Stephen Hodanish, National Weather Service, Melbourne. Steve.Hodanish@noaa.gov
David Sharp, National Weather Service, Melbourne. David.Sharp@noaa.gov
Earle Williams; Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Earlew@juliet.ll.mit.edu
Bob Boldi: Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Bobb@juliet.ll.mit.edu
Steve Goodman: Marshall Space Flight Center. Steven.Goodman@msfc.nasa.gov
Ravi Raghavan: Marshall Space Flight Center. Ravi@scatter.msfc.nasa.gov
Anne Matlin: Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Annem@ll.mit.edu
Mark Weber: Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Markw@ll.mit.edu

Stephen Hodanish, National Weather Service, 421 Croton Rd, Melbourne FL 32935. Phone 407 255 0212, FAX 407 255 0791, Email: Steve.Hodanish@noaa.gov

During the early morning hours of February 23 1998, the worst tornado outbreak ever recorded occurred over the central Florida peninsula. At least 7 confirmed tornadoes, associated with 4 supercells, developed, with 3 of the tornadoes reaching F3 intensity. Many of the tornadoes where on the ground for tens of miles, uncommon for the state of Florida. A total of 42 people were killed, with over 250 people injured.

During the outbreak, National Weather Service Melbourne, in collaboration with the National Aeronautics and Space Administration and the Massachusetts Institute of Technology was collecting data from a unique lightning observing system called Lightning Imaging Sensor Data Applications Display (LISDAD, Boldi et.al., this conference). This system marries radar data collected from the KMLB WSR-88D, cloud to ground data collected from the National Lightning Detection Network, and total lightning data collected from NASA's Lightning Detection And Ranging system. This poster will display, concurrently, total lightning data (displayed in1 minute increments), time/height storm relative velocity products from the KMLB WSR-88D, and damage information (tornado/hail/wind) from each of the supercell thunderstorms. The primary objective of this poster presentation is to observe how total lightning activity changes as the convective storm intensifies, and how the lightning activity changes with respect to mesocyclone strength (vortex stretching) and damaging weather on the ground.