Kelsey Malloy, Michael K. Tippett, William J. Koshak
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引用次数: 0
Abstract
Cloud-to-ground (CG) lightning substantially impacts human health and property. However, the relations between U.S. lightning activity and the Madden-Julian Oscillation (MJO) and El Niño-Southern Oscillation (ENSO), two predictable drivers of global climate variability, remain uncertain, in part because most lightning datasets have short records that cannot robustly reveal MJO- and ENSO-related patterns. To overcome this limitation, we developed an empirical model of 6-hourly lightning flash count over the contiguous U.S. (CONUS) using environmental variables (convective available potential energy and precipitation) andNational Lightning Detection Network data for 2003–2016. This model is shown to reproduce the observed daily and seasonal variability of lightning over most of CONUS. Then, the empirical model was applied to construct a proxy lightning dataset for the period 1979–2021, which was used to investigate the summer MJO-lightning relationship at daily resolution and the winter-spring ENSO-lightning relationship at seasonal resolution. Overall, no robust relationship between MJO phase and lightning patterns was found when seasonality was taken into consideration. El Niño is associated with increased lightning activity over the Coastal Southeast U.S. during early winter, the Southwest during winter through spring, and the Northwest during late spring, whereas La Niña is associated with increased lightning activity over the Tennessee River Valley during winter.
期刊介绍:
Monthly Weather Review (MWR) (ISSN: 0027-0644; eISSN: 1520-0493) publishes research relevant to the analysis and prediction of observed atmospheric circulations and physics, including technique development, data assimilation, model validation, and relevant case studies. This research includes numerical and data assimilation techniques that apply to the atmosphere and/or ocean environments. MWR also addresses phenomena having seasonal and subseasonal time scales.