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The 1997-98 El Nino Event and Related Wintertime Lightning Variations in the Southeastern United StatesThe El Nino Southern Oscillation (ENSO) is a climate anomaly responsible for world-wide weather impacts ranging from droughts to floods. In the United States, warm episode years are known to produce above normal rainfall along the Southeast US Gulf Coast and into the Gulf of Mexico, with the greatest response observed in the October-March period of the latest warm-episode year. The 1997-98 warm episode is notable for being the strongest event since 1982-83. With the recent launch of a lightning sensor on NASA's Tropical Rainfall Measuring Mission (TRMM) in November 1997 and the expanded coverage of the National Lightning Detection Network (NLDN), such year-to-year changes in lightning activity can be examined with far greater detail than ever before. For the recent ENSO event the greatest year-to-year changes in lightning frequency occur within a broad swath across the northern Gulf of Mexico basin where there is nearly a 200% increase in lightning days year-to-year (35 days in 1997-98 vs. 13 days in 1996-97) and a 200% increase in lightning hours (150 hours vs. 50). These changes occur in association with a 100% increase in the number of synoptic scale cyclones and an anomalously strong jet stream encompassing much of the Gulf basin.
Document ID
20000010461
Acquisition Source
Marshall Space Flight Center
Document Type
Other
Authors
Goodman, S. J.
(NASA Marshall Space Flight Center Huntsville, AL United States)
Buechler, D. E.
(Alabama Univ. Huntsville, AL United States)
Knupp, K.
(Alabama Univ. Huntsville, AL United States)
Driscoll, K.
(Alabama Univ. Huntsville, AL United States)
McCaul, E. W.
(Universities Space Research Association United States)
Date Acquired
August 19, 2013
Publication Date
January 1, 1999
Subject Category
Meteorology And Climatology
Distribution Limits
Public
Copyright
Work of the US Gov. Public Use Permitted.

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